Julian E. Zelizer: Treat Your Democrats Well
[Zelizer is a history professor at Princeton University. He is the author of Jimmy Carter (The American Presidents Series).]
President Obama has looked to Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson because of their ability to move big legislation through Congress. He has looked to Ronald Reagan because he was a transformative leader. He’s looked to Bill Clinton for help, because nobody plays the game of politics better. Unfortunately, however, as Obama leads his party into the 2010 midterms he seems to be following the model of Jimmy Carter in 1978....
It’s easy to forget that Carter also scored big victories during his first two years in the White House. After his first 100 days he enjoyed 68 percent approval ratings, and Washington Post columnist Joseph Kraft noted that “Republicans and Independents like him as well as Democrats do.” In 1978, the president used that political capital to push the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties. The treaties were crucial, in Carter’s mind, if the U.S. wanted to rebuild trust among Latin Americans. The Senate ratified the treaties by one vote, and Carter claimed a major victory. On domestic policy Carter won passage of energy-reform legislation, though it was watered down and divided his party. Congress also enacted the Ethics in Government Act, which created the Office of the Independent Counsel, and it deregulated the airlines. Yet none of these initiatives excited middle- or working-class Americans suffering through stagnation....
Read entire article at Newsweek
President Obama has looked to Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson because of their ability to move big legislation through Congress. He has looked to Ronald Reagan because he was a transformative leader. He’s looked to Bill Clinton for help, because nobody plays the game of politics better. Unfortunately, however, as Obama leads his party into the 2010 midterms he seems to be following the model of Jimmy Carter in 1978....
It’s easy to forget that Carter also scored big victories during his first two years in the White House. After his first 100 days he enjoyed 68 percent approval ratings, and Washington Post columnist Joseph Kraft noted that “Republicans and Independents like him as well as Democrats do.” In 1978, the president used that political capital to push the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties. The treaties were crucial, in Carter’s mind, if the U.S. wanted to rebuild trust among Latin Americans. The Senate ratified the treaties by one vote, and Carter claimed a major victory. On domestic policy Carter won passage of energy-reform legislation, though it was watered down and divided his party. Congress also enacted the Ethics in Government Act, which created the Office of the Independent Counsel, and it deregulated the airlines. Yet none of these initiatives excited middle- or working-class Americans suffering through stagnation....