Is Obama Selling Out Liberals Who Elected Him?

WASHINGTON (Dec. 6) -- The people who elected Barack Obama president in 2008 are not amused as 2010 comes to a close.

Even before the White House announced a framework for a deal to extend for two years the Bush tax cuts to all -- including millionaires -- and offer more protection to large estates in exchange for Republicans agreeing to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, liberal Democrats fumed over what they see as a sell-out:

• The Progressive Change Campaign Committee came up with an ad urging Obama to "keep your promise" and not to cave to Republicans by extending tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.
• The liberal group MoveOn.org put out a video featuring Obama supporters pleading for the return of "that bold, progressive man we elected president in 2008." It implored him to "stay strong" and oppose "millionaire bailouts."
• Liberal economist Paul Krugman wrote in a column titled "Let's Not Make a Deal" that the president should not give in to Republican "blackmail" -- even if that means everyone's taxes go up next month. "Mr. Obama should draw a line in the sand, right here, right now," he wrote.
• New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that those "desperate to decipher the baffling Obama presidency" look to the symptoms of those with "Stockholm syndrome" to help explain why he is trying to "placate his Republican captors in Washington."

Members of the president's party in Congress have been more polite, though just barely.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said not even the tea party "said 'give tax breaks to millionaires.' " Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was also among the Democrats none too pleased with the compromise being hammered out before the Bush-era tax cuts expire Dec. 31.

Top Democrats left the White House this evening without commenting on the deal that Republicans are already lauding as a sensible compromise.

Hours earlier, during a speech in North Carolina before returning to the White House to seal the deal, Obama made his case for compromise.

"Republicans want to make permanent the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. I have argued that we can't afford it right now. But what I've also said is we've got to find consensus here -- because a middle-class tax hike would be very tough not only on working families, it would also be a drag on our economy at this moment," he said. "We've got to make sure we're coming up with a solution, even if it's not 100 percent what I want or 100 percent what the Republicans want."

But critics within Obama's own party have tired of what strategist James Carville so colorfully referred to as his seeming inability to man up against Republicans who, after all, spent the first two years of his presidency firmly in the minority.

"The American people are on the Democrats' side. They ought to drive a very hard bargain," said Democratic strategist Paul Begala, noting a recent CNN poll in which 64 percent support letting tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 expire. He said Democratic lawmakers should demand action on a jobs bill or GOP buy-in to stop undermining the new health care law.

"Those would be big concessions," Begala said. "But if the Democrats are asked to give the GOP their all-time top priority, they ought to get a lot more in return than what's being talked about."

Ryan McConaghy of the centrist Democratic group Third Way suggested his party suffers from a lack of vision and focus about what it wants to do.

"From the start, Republicans have had one position: permanently extend the Bush tax plan," he said. "Democrats have had five or six, which has given the Republicans a negotiating advantage."

McConaghy said this is just "the first in a long line of issues that the president has to work with newly empowered Republicans to resolve and get results. This isn't just about the specifics of a compromise on taxes, it's about building a basis for future action and has to be viewed in the context of a broad governing agenda."

It also has to be viewed within the realm of reality, University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said. Liberals who expect Obama to forge straight ahead with their agenda without regard to the recent election may be naive about how Washington works.

"Losing has consequences," he said. "Maybe Obama could drive a harder bargain right now, and get something extra added into the mix, whether 'don't ask' repeal or the DREAM Act passage. Realistically, he's got a weak hand. Come January, he's going to have an even weaker hand."