Less than three months ago Barack Obama was being declared a political corpse as his opponents seized control of the lower House of Congress and suggested that he would be president in name only.
But buttressed by a rapid turnaround in the polls Obama used his annual state of the union address to position himself as the voice of the centre, appealing to his political opponents to find common ground in the face of the Republicans’ stated policy of obstructionism.
The president’s approval rating has gone back to around 50%, a much quicker rebound than either Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan managed following mid-term defeats in congressional elections — and both went on to win re-election comfortably.
The polls show that the president scored points, particularly among independent voters, for compromising with the outgoing Congress on extending tax cuts for the wealthy and showing that he could deliver results with a burst of legislation that lifted the bar on gay people in the military and won approval of a nuclear missile treaty with Russia.
Obama’s speech in the wake of the Tucson shootings also stood in stark contrast to Sarah Palin’s self-serving attempt to justify the often violent political rhetoric of the right.
‘One-note samba’
Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, said Obama is benefiting from the first signs of economic recovery. “Sometimes I think we’re a society that’s a one-note samba because you can trace presidential popularity pretty much according to the economy unless there’s an unpopular war or scandal afoot,” he said.
The Republicans claimed their sweeping victory in the House of Representatives and the Democrats’ greatly reduced majority in the Senate as a repudiation of the president’s style and policies. But Obama may be about to reap the benefit of the opposition’s win as he seeks to reposition himself as the voice of moderation.
The Republican leadership has shown it has little taste for compromise, even though the polls show that three-quarters of Americans want the president and Congress to work together on the big issues, not least the economy.
Sabato said the Republican takeÂover of the House of Representatives gives the president a new political lease on life. “Once the Tea Party members of the House start having a full airing of their views, Obama will appear more moderate.
He’s going to be nicely positioned between the old Obama and the new Republican House. I’ve said for more than a year that if the Democrats hold both the House and the Senate Obama might be a one-term president. Now he has someone to blame and someone to make him to look better.”
Colin Powell, former secretary of state in the Bush administration who endorsed Obama in the 2008 election, said the president was well Âpositioned politically. “He hasn’t achieved all of his purposes, but he’s stabilised the economy.
The economy is now starting to rebound, more slowly than we would like to see, but it is rebounding,” he told CNN. “Whether you approve of healthcare or not, he took on that issue, which I think is a major challenge for the American people.”
But the coming months will provide a stiff test for all parties as the Republicans push for sharp spending cuts, which, they say, are a condition for authorising more government borrowing. — Guardian News & Media 2011