Julian Zelizer: Why Obama Should Forget "Change You Can Believe In"
[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security: From World War II to the War on Terrorism," and of a book on former President Jimmy Carter, to be published next fall by Times Books.]
Congressional Democrats have been warning President Obama to tone down his anti-Washington rhetoric.
While the president has continued to expound on his campaign themes about the need to change the way Washington works, many of his colleagues on Capitol Hill have been uncomfortable with this posture. Speaker Pelosi and others have asked him to focus his fire on Republicans rather than the system of which they are a part.
The dangers that President Obama, whose 2008 slogan was "change we can believe in," faces from continuing to depict himself as an agent of change became clearer over the past few weeks....
President Jimmy Carter faced a similar problem in 1977. He too ran on a campaign stressing change. "I'll never lie to you," he said to his supporters. Carter told voters they could trust him and he would change the system that brought the nation Watergate.
Carter attacked the interest groups that dominated Washington, including those that supported Democrats such as organized labor. From the start, congressional Democrats were uncomfortable with what they heard. Speaker Tip O'Neill complained that Carter rode into Washington like a "knight on a white horse."
This all made the Bert Lance scandal doubly painful for the administration in the summer of 1977. Bert Lance was a longtime advisor to Carter and the former president of the Calhoun First National Bank of Georgia. Carter had appointed Lance as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Lance became the focus of a controversy in the summer of 1977. He had promised to sell his stocks during the Senate confirmation hearings, but changed his mind when he realized the kinds of losses that would be incurred....
But, as Carter discovered with Lance, such stories can be damaging. In addition to shaking Obama's narrative about being a reformer who is not part of the system, they convey a sense of political weakness. The administration has had trouble influencing special elections and these examples suggest it is becoming desperate for a victory....
Read entire article at CNN.com
Congressional Democrats have been warning President Obama to tone down his anti-Washington rhetoric.
While the president has continued to expound on his campaign themes about the need to change the way Washington works, many of his colleagues on Capitol Hill have been uncomfortable with this posture. Speaker Pelosi and others have asked him to focus his fire on Republicans rather than the system of which they are a part.
The dangers that President Obama, whose 2008 slogan was "change we can believe in," faces from continuing to depict himself as an agent of change became clearer over the past few weeks....
President Jimmy Carter faced a similar problem in 1977. He too ran on a campaign stressing change. "I'll never lie to you," he said to his supporters. Carter told voters they could trust him and he would change the system that brought the nation Watergate.
Carter attacked the interest groups that dominated Washington, including those that supported Democrats such as organized labor. From the start, congressional Democrats were uncomfortable with what they heard. Speaker Tip O'Neill complained that Carter rode into Washington like a "knight on a white horse."
This all made the Bert Lance scandal doubly painful for the administration in the summer of 1977. Bert Lance was a longtime advisor to Carter and the former president of the Calhoun First National Bank of Georgia. Carter had appointed Lance as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Lance became the focus of a controversy in the summer of 1977. He had promised to sell his stocks during the Senate confirmation hearings, but changed his mind when he realized the kinds of losses that would be incurred....
But, as Carter discovered with Lance, such stories can be damaging. In addition to shaking Obama's narrative about being a reformer who is not part of the system, they convey a sense of political weakness. The administration has had trouble influencing special elections and these examples suggest it is becoming desperate for a victory....