Former Obama Campaign Adviser: Obama Really Needs To Move Left To Be Successful

Barack, bubala...listen to this man. Please!

“I am one of the millions of frustrated Americans who want to see Washington do more than it's doing right now,” said Steve Hildebrand, the deputy campaign manager who oversaw the Obama campaign’s field organization and was an architect of his early, crucial victories over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Iowa and South Carolina.

...“There's basically three different parties, and one of those parties tends to be the barrier to getting anything done — and that's the Blue Dogs in the House and the moderates in the Senate,” he said in the interview. “Change is not going to come by people in the Beltway deciding we should have change. It’s going to come because they’re feeling pressure from all over the country.”

“I know where Barack Obama is on these issues and I don't question his sincerity or his honesty towards trying to solve them,” he said. “I do question whether or not the Congress as it is constituted right now is going to have the capacity to ever deliver on some of the most critical issues facing our country right now.”

I love this. God I hope Obama follows his prescription.

Yes, Americans wanted 'change' last year. They almost always do after a party has the presidency for 8 years. But they wanted new voice, not a change to hard left policies. Yet that's what they are getting and they fighting back against the bill of goods they were sold (actually he was always a lefty, people just elected to ignore it and now they will blame him for misleading them).

If Obama's approval ratings keep falling, he'll move to shore up his base (he's no Clinton, he won't tack right) and that will reinforce the damage...a negative feedback loop.

I love how Hildebrand whines about not getting anything done in Congress. What a 20 seat Senate majority (once Kennedy's seat is filled) and 78 seats in the House aren't enough? Dude, that's as good as it gets in America.

In fairness Hildebrand does actually diagnose one problem Obama faces...the 'fault' is with the Democrats not the Republicans. Funny, but for a guy who was supposed to span the partisan divide, Obama can't even unite his own party.

So please Obama...move left. It's not that your popularity will shrink, it will just become more, er, selective.

posted by DrewM. at 01:16 PM

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