National Democrats are desperate for leadership

Two remarkable things happened yesterday, both of which are indicative of the desperation Democrats are feeling for someone to lead their party effectively.  The first, which began around 10 AM yesterday, was Bernie Sanders faux-filibuster on the Obama tax compromise.  The second was the amazing behavior of the President at the impromptu press conference following his pow-wow with Bill Clinton, where he seemed to abdicate the podium to Clinton for over half an hour.   During the day, the blogs and my twitter feed were blowing up with my Democratic friends lauding Bernie Sanders – who isn’t even a Democrat – for “taking a stand.”  And their raucous chorus of cheers for Sanders were followed by the even noisier ??round of head shaking over the President’s move with Bll Clinton.  That the President could make such a huge mistake as allowing Bill Clinton a chance to look more presidential than he did just defies comprehension.

First of all, while I give Senator Sanders (it is taking every bone of my self control not to start calling him Colonel) credit for being able to speak for over 8 hours with barely a break, what he did yesterday was not a filibuster.  He was not using the privilege of holding the floor indefinitely to delay legislation.  He had Reid’s permission for the move, and no one on either side of the aisle tried to stop him – probably because they’d all gone home.  One of the most amusing parts of the whole dog-and-pony show was at the end, where Sanders had to take the chair and preside over Senator Gilibrand’s motion to adjourn – clearly, they were the last two Senators in the Capitol at 7 PM last night.  The actual cloture vote on the Extenders bill won’t take place until Tuesday and it will pass.  Other than warming the cockles of a few progressive hearts with eight hours worth of class warfare and slurs on the rich and getting a few thousand more followers on Twitter, Sanders accomplished nothing legislatively.

But it was a pretty big nothing.  He was able to do something that President Obama has been categorically unable to do – he tried to lead the left in a fight they are itching to have.  Democrats and socialists like Sanders (that’s not a slur – he is a self-proclaimed socialist) have finally come to the conclusion that President Obama is not one of them, but they had no idea what to do about it.  If Sanders accomplished anything, he should have woken up the folks in the White House to just how much of the President’s base he has alienated.  The left is desperate for someone – anyone – to lead them in the fight against what they perceive as the President’s unwillingness to stand on principle.  Even though Sanders isn’t even a Democrat, I heard more than one person suggest he should primary the President in 2012.  That’s how bad things are for Barack Obama right now.

And the President is just bound and determined to make things worse.  There is no one but President Obama to blame for yesterday’s debacle with Bill Clinton.  Robert Gibbs should have probably cut President Clinton off far sooner, but it was one of the worst visuals a sitting President who is under siege from his own party could have allowed.  The juxtaposition of the two men was surreal.  On one side you have a trim, fit and charismatic leader, known for his ability to communicate with broad audiences and who has enjoyed some of the highest sustained approval ratings for a President in the last twenty years, and on the other side you have President Obama.  He looked like he was completely out of his element.  Clinton owned that podium and owned the room from the moment he set foot in it.  He looked like a leader.  He sounded like a leader.  He gave a better explanation for Democrats to support the Extenders bill than the President did and he sounded more credible.  It was actually a bit reassuring to see him at that podium again and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking that.  That’s the absolute last message the President should be allowing to flow from his White House.

I’m sure when the rest of the White House staff – most of whom were at the annual holiday party with the First Lady that the President rushed off  to – got back to their desks and saw what had happened, they must have resolved never to let the President out of their sight ever again.  It was an amazing visual.

What the two events make clear to me is that the Democrats are desperate for leadership.  They aren’t getting it from President Obama, Senator Reid or soon-to-be Minority Leader Pelosi.  My wife has always said that she thought whomever was elected President in 2008 would be a one-termer – a “palate cleanser” for the electorate as she says – and I have to say, the more I think about it, I have to agree with her.  I never thought I’d see the day when a socialist from Vermont would be the best spokesman for the base of the Democratic party, and the President of the United States would hand over his podium to a more popular predecessor so he can go to a party.  It’s amateur hour down on Pennsylvania Avenue.

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About the author

Brian Schoeneman

A veteran political professional, a long-time Republican party activist and new attorney, Brian W. Schoeneman has been offering his opinions at Bearing Drift since 2010. He serves on the Board of Virginia Line Media, LLC, which operates Bearing Drift and spends his days representing the U.S. Merchant Marine in Washington, D.C. He hails from Fairfax County, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and son.