(4 of 4)
The GOP strategy of No complicated his message. It made him look like a partisan promise breaker and the stimulus like Washington status quo. The inside game of legislative sausagemaking is always messy, and the tyranny of needing 60 Senate votes to pass anything required uncomfortable compromises. "Rahm must have cut 14,000 deals," an Obama aide recalls. "You can't win messaging like that." And once the stimulus bill was signed, Obama moved on to bailing out the auto industry, stabilizing the financial industry and reforming health care. But the Republican message never wavered: Big Government, big spending, where are the jobs? Emanuel joked that Obama passed the stimulus too quickly, before voters got a sense that jobs were his top priority. In any case, Pfeiffer argues, no message or slogan can counteract double-digit unemployment. And leaders rarely get credit for preventing worse outcomes.
The rap on Obama in 2008 was that he was a words guy. He has turned out to be a deeds guy, dragging the stimulus, Obamacare and financial reform into law, inspiring virtually nobody in the process. So what happened to the words guy? He doesn't talk much about change these days. He no longer utters the word stimulus. As he once told his economic team, "I get the Keynesian thing, but it's not where the electorate is." He hasn't really made a robust case for his other accomplishments either, focusing on his plans for the future while portraying Mitt Romney's plans as Bush redux. For a brief period in 2009, he began describing his program as a "new foundation" for a sustainable postbubble economy, but that theme quickly faded.
Cynical Republicans, ungrateful Democrats, lazy reporters and the gift bag of dismal economic indicators all helped muddle his message. But it was up to Obama to make the case. A friendly Congressman once warned him, The stimulus is great, but you're not selling it. "I know exactly what you're saying," Obama replied. "And you're exactly right."
Adapted from The New New Deal, copyright 2012 by Michael Grunwald. Published August 2012 by Simon & Schuster Inc. Reprinted by permission
FOR MORE BY MICHAEL GRUNWALD, GO TO time.com/grunwald