Democrats dispute idea that Obama is playing toward political center

Democratic strategists dispute the notion that President-elect Obama is moving to the political center with his proposed $300 billion in tax cuts.

But they’re also not saying he should play to the left, which is what President Clinton did in his first year in office, resulting in disaster for the party.

{mosads}Party loyalists seem to be giving Obama plenty of breathing room as they keep in mind that Clinton’s play to the left-leaning base brought about the disastrous 1994 midterm elections, when Republicans took control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

Democrats offered a number of defenses for Obama’s tax cut proposal and overall stimulus plan, which could be viewed as a political maneuver to win over centrist Democrats and Republicans, a charge Obama himself denied Monday.

At the heart of their defense, though, appears to be a the specter of Clinton’s abysmal beginning in office and the subsequent drubbing Democrats were dealt two years later.

Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist and Washington lobbyist, said Democrats will give Obama “enormous running room” as he begins his administration, in part because they are “very mindful of the experiences in ’93 and ’94.”

“Nobody wants to repeat that,” Elmendorf said.

Elmendorf and other Democrats, however, said for the most part Obama is simply following through on a promise he made during the campaign. On Monday, Obama made that case to reporters at his transition office in Washington.

Asked about his proposal of such a high-dollar amount of tax cuts — a move that drew faint praise from the conservative group Club for Growth — Obama responded that throughout the campaign he “talked about the need for middle-class tax cuts.”

“So the notion that me wanting to include relief for working families in this plan is somehow a political ploy, when this was a centerpiece of my plan for the last two years, doesn’t make too much sense,” Obama said. “In a bad situation, there is a happy convergence between what I had pledged in the campaign and what is required for the economy right now.”

Throughout the day, Obama, while meeting with congressional leaders and his economic team, stressed that the state of the economy goes beyond partisan politics, saying that “we are in one of those periods in American history where we don’t have Republican problems or Democratic problems, we have American problems.”

One Obama aide said Monday that Obama has been approaching members of both parties “to develop a tax cut package based on a simple principle — what will have the biggest and most immediate impact on creating private-sector jobs and strengthening the middle class.”

“We’re guided by what works, not by any ideology or special interests,” the aide said.

And, so far, Democratic strategists appear to be giving Obama the benefit of the doubt.

“He’s going to deal with the circumstances in front of him,” Elmendorf said. “I think [Democrats] have to be willing to adjust to the circumstances.”

Democratic strategist Steve Murphy noted that “as long as we’re talking about tax cuts for the middle class,” then Obama is delivering on exactly what he promised. And by reaching out to Republicans in the process, Murphy said, Obama is being true to his pledges of bipartisanship.

One Democratic strategist, however, noted that what Obama and congressional Democrats are proposing by way of the tax cuts and stimulus package is actually a very “progressive” economic agenda that might be tough for Republicans to endorse, even as centrists see a compromise. Helping to fund state Medicaid shortfalls and extending unemployment insurance and benefits for part-time workers represent relatively dramatic shifts in economic policy that Republicans would generally balk at, the strategist said.

However, given the urgency of the moment that Obama has repeatedly stressed, centrists are likely to fall in line, helping to pass significantly liberal economic adjustments in policy.

“Having all the moderates around you is just camouflage for pursuing a progressive agenda,” the Democratic strategist said.

Strategist Dan Gerstein said any angry voices on the left might actually bolster Obama’s efforts at bipartisanship, sending a message that he is “not going to be held hostage by the extremes of either party.”

But Gerstein said it was unfair to insinuate that Obama has made any move to the political center since winning the election or that he is attempting Clintonian triangulation with the stimulus.

“Moving to the center suggests a cynical compromise of convictions,” Gerstein said. “It sort of smacks of the bankrupt terminology we’ve used for the past 20 years.”

For one Democratic strategist, Obama’s approach to the economy is refreshing, not in comparison to Clinton, but instead when compared to the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“The Obama approach to policy is based on pragmatism and doing what’s best for the country,” said Phil Singer, former spokesman for Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton. “After eight years of government driven by ideology, I think that’s the right approach.”