Responsibility for the overwhelming defeat in the mid-term elections falls squarely on the shoulders of Obama, the Party leader. Democrats lost the message battle, and as a result, lost the money war and voter turnout campaign.
Interviewed just after the election for 60 MINUTES , the President acknowledged that his message hadn't worked: "The hardest argument to make in politics is: things would have been a lot worse if we hadn't done all those taken all these steps-- But he didn't suggest an alternative message.
Obama understands he has a problem but he doesn't seem to know what to do about it. Indeed, immediately after the election he left the country for an extended period without addressing the major issues revealed by the November 2nd debacle: the lack of a coherent Democratic message about jobs, the absence of a coordinated national campaign, the failure of senior Democratic leadership, and the seeming lack of passion on the part of the White House.
Somewhere over the last two years, the President has neglected two principles that every successful CEO must follow: there can only be one number one priority and it's not sufficient to work hard, you have to be seen as effective.
After the mid-term election, many pundits suggested that where Obama went wrong -- where he got off track and led the Democratic Party over the cliff -- was healthcare reform. The widely-share opinion was that the Administration should have focused on jobs and the economy, rather than healthcare. Nonetheless, the obvious rejoinder is that corporate healthcare costs have been a drag on the economy, and healthcare reform should spur employment.
Obama's fundamental problem has been that his priorities aren't clear. The language of his Administration suggests a cocky attitude: we're smart folks, who can do everything: fix the economy, fight two wars, abate global climate change, and attend to all the other problems. But that's an absurd stance. There's too much going on to tackle all problems simultaneously. Unfortunately, the White House, with their nose to the grindstone and their shoulder to the wheel, can't see that.
The President needs to step back, take a deep breath, and declare that his number one priority is resolving the jobs crisis.
Because Republicans are sheep and therefore easily herded in the same direction, by attack dogs such as Karl Rove, they show remarkable discipline. Typically they have a daily message. The White House needs to emulate this.
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