The question that keeps coming up is, “Will Obama pivot to the center after the election, and triangulate against the GOP congress the way Clinton did?” Fair question. Let’s go to the man himself and see if we can’t glean an answer:
Most of all, he has learned that, for all his anti-Washington rhetoric, he has to play by Washington rules if he wants to win in Washington. It is not enough to be supremely sure that he is right if no one else agrees with him. “Given how much stuff was coming at us,” Obama told me, “we probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.”
Mmmmmnope. Expect the same shinola, different wrapper.
And frankly I doubt even the wrapper will change much.
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