This does not look like an effective bargaining strategy:Obama Would Sign Parts Of Jobs Bill, Push For RestThe Obama White House is revising its initial unwillingness to negotiate on the president's job creation plan, saying now that if individual components of the bill came to the president's desk -- as opposed to the bill in its entirety -- he would sign them into law.
The new approach opens up the administration to charges that it no longer views the American Jobs Act as a take-it-or-leave-it bill. But in a briefing with reporters Tuesday, senior administration officials insisted President Obama wasn't backing off his position that he wants the entire bill passed through Congress.
You can
settle for pieces, but putting that out at the beginning doesn't seem smart. As to:
Senior administration officials insisted that they had not hurt their standing at the negotiation table, noting that each component of the president's proposal is popular in its own right.
That may be true
as far as the public is concerned, but each component isn't popular with the Republicans in the House, and they are the ones that matter when it comes to passing legislation.
It's too early to say what kind of jobs legislation will emerge, but it's beginning to look like it will be a bunch of small steps with limited affect on the economy. Also, a piecemeal approach may blunt charges that the Republicans aren't cooperating or trying to help the economy.
It's weird. Why not play hardball for a couple of weeks to see if that resonates with the electorate (and pundits). Just last week in the speech to Congress Obama was saying "
Pass this bill" (17 times). This new White House stance seems so
unnecessary at this early stage. What made it happen? Who called the shots? Something peculiar is going on.
posted by Quiddity at 9/14/2011 12:27:00 AM 
