From Kerry Eleveld in the Advocate:
It was only after every moderate-to-progressive pundit from the sweep of San Francisco to Portland, Maine panned his performance, his linguistics, his style, his lack of imagination, his aspirational anemia, that Obama went to the bargaining table with BP the next day and came up with $20 Billion to help compensate people who’s lives have been devastated in the region—a good start.
Then Texas Rep. Joe Barton handed Democrats a gem and the White House, bruised and battered and perhaps a little desperate itself, pounced on his comments in just a little over an hour, calling it “shameful” that the congressman seemed “to have more concern for big corporations” than the residents of the region.
“Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy,' but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now,” read the White House statement.
But this week was nothing new—rather, it was another lesson from a recurring narrative: This White House doesn’t come out swinging without being backed up against a wall.
It did not put pen to paper on health care until a year into a battle nearly lost. It did not finalize a deal for “don’t ask, don’t tell” until the weekend before a vote that was going to take place with or without White House input. And in the wake of the oil spill, plummeting polling numbers triggered the trappings of import—a speech from the Oval Office—but still produced no meat.
Not until White House advisers realized they had basically lost everyone – friends and enemies alike in Washington as well as the heart of America – did a determined Obama show up to broker a deal that yielded the $20 billion escrow account.
I often wonder where we would be on LGBT issues right now if the community hadn't raised holy heck following the first DOMA brief last spring. This president and this White House only move decisively when their hand is forced. And that's something every advocate—whether working on behalf of labor, reproductive rights, immigration reform, the environment, or LGBT equality—should work into their calculus if they hope to inspire change during this administration.
