Analysis: Obama takes stock of supporters' passion
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President Barack Obama speaks to a crowd gathered inside a hangar at Muniz Air National Guard Base, shortly after his arrival in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tuesday June 14, 2011. Obama's visit to Puerto Rico marks the first by a sitting U.S. President since John F. Kennedy.
WASHINGTON — As he weighed a presidential run back in 2006, President Barack Obama displayed a realistic sense of self-awareness: All the adulation he was receiving, he conceded then, was because he was a blank slate on which people could attach their aspirations.
As he seeks re-election, his self-awareness is on display again, with a new conclusion.
"It's not as cool to be an Obama supporter as it was in 2008, with the posters and all of that stuff," he acknowledged to an intimate gathering of donors in Miami this week.
It's a line he delivered with a chuckle, a variation on a theme that he is using with his base of supporters. But it holds an important truth for the Obama campaign: Obama is now a known quantity and he will not inspire voters this election the same way he did in the previous one.
Complicating things for Obama is what the Pew Research Center calls an "intensity gap" between Obama's conservative opponents and the liberals who would be most likely to support him. A recent Pew survey found that 84 percent of staunch conservatives strongly disapprove of the president, but only 64 percent of solid liberals strongly approve of him.
Intensity, or enthusiasm, is an important factor in driving voters to the polls. Obama benefited greatly from it in 2008 with a record-shattering turnout. But conservative intensity played a significant role in the 2010 midterm elections that put Republicans in control of the House.
For the president, crafting his message for 2012 is a balancing act.
He must re-energize his base, the voters moved by his 2008 mantra of hope and change. But he also must reassure moderate and independent voters that he is still focused on righting the economy and that he is not the radical, ineffective agent portrayed by the Republican field of presidential candidates.
Obama bridges the two with a line meant to be both a defense of his first two years in office and a rationale for his re-election: "Big changes don't happen overnight."
Still, Obama this week was reminded of the results many of his supporters have come to expect from him, no matter how unrealistic. While speaking to more than 900 supporters Monday at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, one man in the audience stood and shouted, "Keep your promise, stop AIDS now!" before the crowd drowned him out with cheers of "Obama, Obama!"
Obama also faces the full force of the Republican presidential field. The GOP debate in New Hampshire on Monday night displayed how a central feature of the Republican candidates' pitches was that they were the antithesis of Obama, variously denouncing his health care plan as "Obamacare," his time in the presidency as the "Obama depression" and his policies as anti-job and anti-business.
While Republicans know whom they are running against, Obama does not.
Obama political adviser David Axelrod maintains that Obama voters will regain their intensity once they have a flesh and blood candidate to compare with Obama.
But that is still months away and Obama needs enthusiasm from his supporters now to build a grass-roots base and to raise money.
In his speeches to donors these days, Obama recalls the euphoria displayed by his backers during his election night acceptance speech in Chicago's Grant Park.
"Now, two and a half years have passed since that night in Grant Park, and I've got a lot more gray hair," he said at the Arsht Center, where supporters paid from $44 to $2,500 to hear him. "And what seemed so fresh and new, now — 'we've seen Obama so many times on TV, and we know all his quirks and all his tics and he's been poked apart.'"
He knows what his liberal critics say, and he asks for their forbearance. To be sure, they have a litany of complaints. Many Democrats wanted him to push for a public option in health care, a government alternative to private insurance providers. Others wanted an immigration overhaul or a quicker end to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I know the conversation you guys are having," he said to laughter. "I understand that. There have been frustrations, and I've got some dings to show for it over the last two and half years."
Jun 19, 2011 at 10:43 a.m.
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Retar...I mean Retired,
Did you read the rest of the Clinton speech? Even the rest of the section you are shortening to fit your argument. He was talking about the government's actions towards non-traditional families (single parent, foster, same-sex if you read between the lines). It was a thinly veiled jab at the Republicans policy toward disadvantaged and oppressed groups. And what would you have Spitzer do, go easy on prostitution? He would have been slammed either way. At least he kept fulfilling the duties of the position he was in. If everyone that frequented prostitutes in New York had to resign their post, our economy would suffer another meltdown as Wall St. would become a virtual ghost town. Again, the hypocrisy of campaigning on a fully pre-meditated and thought out platform of family values or oppression of gay rights and then toe tapping your way through a men's room or sending sexually charged emails to under age male pages or jet setting to meet an Argentine mistress is much more glaring to me as an American voter than Spitzer, Clinton or Weiner's transgressions. Fortunatley for me, I would never have had to struggle with that because I would have never voted for Craig, Foley or Sanford in the first place.
Jun 19, 2011 at 7:09 a.m.
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"I want an America where family values live in our actions" Yep no hypocrisy there at all..
Prosecuting prostitution while using their service is not hypocrisy either...
Helps me understand the leftest brain more. Thanks.
Jun 18, 2011 at 6:27 p.m.
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Wow! The attorney general prosecuted crimes? No kidding! Hardly a campaign platform. Same goes for Clinton's speech. One bullet point from a speech does not a platform make. Nice try though. Don't worry Republicans don't have to share their hypocrisy. They can have it all to themselves.
Jun 18, 2011 at 12:10 a.m.
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Your history lessons have failed you. During clinton's acceptance speech for the democratic nomination, he said "I want an America where family values live in our actions, not just in our speeches." [July 16, 1992] http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index....
Did you also forget spitzer had a history as the NY state attorney general of prosecuting prostitution cases, even when he was a john himself.
Or you could could continue to think only one side does these things while saying another.
Jun 17, 2011 at 10:14 p.m.
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Yes, RAF, I too long for the day when sex scandals actually involved sex. I'm pretty sure Spitzer and Clinton never ran on a "family values" platform so their scandals weren't compunded by out and out hypocrisy like most of the Republicans' are.
Jun 17, 2011 at 1:29 p.m.
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spitzer who? clinton who? ohh never mind the facts...
Jun 16, 2011 at 4:08 p.m.
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Weiner gentley fell on his "sword" to clear the way for the Democratic party in 2012 and to turn the "family values" spotlight back on to the party that allows David "I love prostitutes" Vitter to remain in the Senate. I think every one can agree that hookers are just good, old-fashioned family fun. I will say one thing for the Republicans, at least their sex scandals actually involve people having actual sex. Well, except for Larry Craig, but we'll give him an A for effort...and his "wide stance".
Jun 16, 2011 at 3:50 p.m.
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Cleaned another scum pol out of Washington today. The jobless # will go up next week. The Weiner's stimulus pkg just fell short. What a stand up guy.
Jun 16, 2011 at 10:31 a.m.
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And there it is, right on cue.
Jun 16, 2011 at 10:19 a.m.
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well if rachel says so it must be true...
Jun 16, 2011 at 10:02 a.m.
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Here is some more really well researched and investigated coverage of the Mitt Romney voter fraud allegations:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8565
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http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8568
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/...
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The last one is a really good summary. I'm sure the con$ will poo poo it because it's Rachel Maddow but whatever. Like it or not, liberals are capable of proper investigative journalism. It's got specs of Romney's alleged address and details the campaign against Romney by numerous con$ervative groups and politicians. Odd, considering he's probably got the best chance against President Obama in a general election.
Jun 16, 2011 at 9:29 a.m.
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To distance himself from the liberal policies he put forth in Mass. Romney sold his multi-million dollar home there in the city of Belmont. However, he wanted to support the campaign of Scott Brown leading up to that special election in 2010, so he claimed his address to be the unfinished (concrete walls and floor at the time) basement at his son's house near the house Romney had sold. By law a voter's residence must be the center of their life (personal, professional & social). Would a multi-millionaire with mulit-million dollar homes in New Hampshire and California but none in Massachusetts really make his and his wife's primary residence an unfinished basement at their son's house? I guess we'll see because one of Romney's lesser known opponents for the GOP nom is pushing the investigation along with a number of other conservative groups. Should be interesting.
http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_d...
Jun 16, 2011 at 7:08 a.m.
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Repubs certainly did change things in Wisconsin. It's disgusting, unlawful and sleazy. I am not proud to live in a state where plutocracy reigns and democracy is dead.
Jun 16, 2011 at 6:37 a.m.
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WR...source for this rumor
tmrlu...reaching a ways back?
Jun 15, 2011 at 11:52 p.m.
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Possibility or fact? If it's a fact I am sure his support will dwindle. Speculation from the left is hardly a credible reason for a change of support.
Jun 15, 2011 at 11:48 p.m.
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There's a very good possibility that Mit Romney committed voter fraud in Massachusetts. He's the current front runner for the GOP nom. Will Republican voters support a law breaker with all their "intensity"?
Jun 15, 2011 at 9:30 p.m.
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Iran Contra was a scandal too. Was about weapons too.
Jun 15, 2011 at 8:56 p.m.
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Obama admitted he might be a one term president in an interview on NBC. He said he is OK with that and so are the wife and kids. I hope he is right.
Jun 15, 2011 at 7:49 p.m.
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He has been foaming for years donna
Jun 15, 2011 at 6:03 p.m.
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How about the latest Obama scandal? The program called "Fast and Furious?"
Hundreds of assault arms were sold and shipped into Mexico on purpose by the Feds. Yes, I said on purpose. The purpose was to track the arms to see where they went. It didn't work and a border agent was killed with one. Every time the ATF agents on the border wanted to confiscate them as they found them going over the border, they were told not to. These arms are now in the possession of the drug lords in Mexico--nice going Washington. And Obama's group is trying to distance themselves from the scandal.
Jun 15, 2011 at 5:44 p.m.
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We Repubs changed things in WI and we'll change the congress and White House in 2012! You NGgrf will be foaming at the mouth.
Jun 15, 2011 at 5:21 p.m.
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We will see in the 2012 election who's intense. Foaming at the mouth doesn't make right wingers intense. It makes them irrational. Pretty tough to be intense without a viable candidate.
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