I gave up on the old dogs learning new tricks shortly after the health care reform fiasco in which "victory" was defined as getting 1/10th of what we could have gotten had the President and Dems in Congress actually fought for what they claimed they believed in.
From Greg Sargent:
It has been pointed out a million times that when the government shut down in 1995, Clinton emerged the winner, while Newt and the GOP took a shellacking. But what isn’t discussed at all is why the shutdown was a winner for Dems and a loser for Republicans — and the history has a real bearing on today’s debate.Not to put too fine a point on it, but Barack Obama is not Bill Clinton. For whatever reason, Obama abhors a fight. It's something in his character. I'd consider it a flaw. But it's there. He doesn't like fighting, doesn't believe in fighting. He's a political pacifist, hoping that flashing his opponents a daisy and a peace sign will ultimately win the day.
Specifically, Clinton emerged the winner in that fight over time, because it persuaded him to move away from a strategy of triangulation, and towards confrontation — and it was only after this shift that the public began seeing Clinton as a strong leader. Notably, in another fascinating parallel to the current moment, Clinton’s public esteem grew because he also became more confrontational over Medicare.
Our less charitable readers think it's something far worse - that Obama actually agrees with the Republicans. I don't think so. I'm not entirely sure what the President believes in, if anything. I suspect he has opinions. It's difficult for someone intelligent and educated not to at least have an opinion. But the issue is how wedded he is to what he believes (not very, I suspect), and what he thinks is the best way to proceed when he has a disagreement (as in a negotiation) with someone.
If you aren't really wedded to your views, and don't really believe in the merits of fighting (and even perhaps find the entire notion of fighting "dirty" and beneath you), then you're going to lose a lot of fights.
Of course the beauty of Obama's approach is that he may be such a political peacenik that any battle he can avoid, regardless of the cost, is to him a victory. The goal of the fight, I fear, is to avoid a fight at all costs. So if he does, he's won.
