The Wall Street Journal has an article
exploring whether conservative attacks on President Obama have
allowed him to shore up support among liberals even as he
disappoints them on a number of issues. This is something that
first struck me during the Joe Wilson "You Lie!" episode. Even
though President Obama gave a health care speech to a joint
session of Congress in which he opened the door to ditching the
government health insurance plan, liberals were too busy snarling
about Wilson to get angry about it.
This phenomenon is nothing new to politics. President Bush, for
instance, still enjoyed strong support among conservatives for
much of his presidency, even as he passed the largest expansion
of entitlements since the Great Society and expanded the federal
role in education. While there was always criticism along the
margins, and a temporary uproar, it would be quickly forgotten
once a liberal made some outrageous charge. It wasn't really
until Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers in 2005 that we saw a
widespread and sustained conservative revolt from which he never
really recovered.
So as Obama enters the stage of the health care debate in which
he'll have to find a way to talk liberals into accepting less,
his best ally may be his critics on the right. One can see a
White House pitch to liberals that more or less amounts to, a
loss on health care means victory for Joe Wilson, Sarah Palin,
Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
