A Very Divisive President

Until the end of last week, things had clearly been going President Obama’s way – he had been winning the political fight since being re-elected.  But is he brining us together as a nation?

His inaugural address was an elegant, eloquent, and compelling speech.  It invoked the key message of equality – for women, minorities, the disabled, and gays.  He put himself in the same category as Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Abraham Lincoln.

He argued that we are a nation that defends our people and our values at home and abroad.  That we will tackle climate change and see government reforms.

That said, while the tone was uplifting, the rhetoric was ideologically driven and potentially quite polarizing.

Before the inaugural address, the president had two big fiscal cliff wins.  He won the fight over taxes in the fiscal cliff negotiations, managing to get a deal that was totally imbalanced in the Democrats’ favor and offered only $1 in spending cuts for every $44 in tax increases.  And with the decision to do a three-month extension on the debt ceiling, Republicans are on the defensive.  But in these victories the president set himself up for a great fall even beyond this past week’s latest fiscal cliff “crisis.”

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Republicans have no strategy on the debt, deficit, taxes or entitlement reform.  They need an inclusive, pro-growth agenda and until they get one, the Democrats will continue to dominate negotiations.

But President Obama is losing the long-term battle that will be played out over the next four years, potentially hurting himself, the Democrats and the country by continuing to employ the divisive approach he used throughout campaign season and the first few months of his second term.  Why do I say this?  First, he is hurting himself because his legacy is based on inclusiveness, being a different kind of president and doing politics a different sort of way.  His partisan approach since the election is antithetical to why he was elected in the first place.

In his inaugural address, he made the argument in favor of his progressive, collectivist approach to government.

This raises serious doubts in the longer term for the ability of the Democratic Party and the president to forge the kind of consensus America needs to move forward.  We need compromise, and from this speech, it is far from clear that the president and his party are capable, or interested, in doing this.

Second, he is hurting the Democrats because they have to move to the center and take on spending and entitlements, neither of which he has encouraged.  We saw how important this shift is in 2010, an off-year election, when that electorate was much more sensitive to spending and tax issues than the previous presidential election.

In turn, the president must be solicitous of real world concerns to reform the debt, deficits and entitlements and show he can be socially progressive and fiscally conservative as Bill Clinton was in negotiations in 1995 and 1996 with Newt Gingrich.

Finally, the president is hurting the country because he has failed to recognize that we are a nation at risk.  As former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and Sen. Alan Simpson have argued, we are facing unsustainable fiscal challenges.  Our debt has recently reached over 100 percent of GDP.  We have to rein in spending and need a balanced plan that also includes increased tax hikes.

Despite setting up the Bowles-Simpson commission, the president rejected the plan and, further, has not yet said what he plans to do to address the fiscal challenges.

As a number of people have said, and I agree, our national security is inexorably linked to our fiscal health.

Unless we are able to pull together as a nation with common purpose and a clear sense of fiscal discipline, ultimately the American people will lose.

This will be Obama’s greatest failing, and although he is racking up a few short –term wins, he seriously runs the risk of steering us into one of the most serious crises in American history if he doesn’t adjust his approach.