Kerry Eleveld in the Advocate:
At Thursday’s briefing the White House press corps was equally baffled about the Democratic strategy headed into the midterms. Here’s a bit of flavor as a couple reporters struggle to grasp why the Dems didn’t force Republicans to take a vote on the middle-class tax cut that they keep saying the GOP is “holding hostage” in favor of passing tax cuts for the rich.
Gibbs: [The Republicans] price tag for the middle-class [tax cut] was the $700 billion. We could have passed the middle-class [tax cut] alone, provided some much needed certainty to the economy and to middle-class families and had — still had plenty of time to debate the $700 billion price tag for the other cuts.
Reporter: Why not do that? Why not introduce the bill —
Reporter: Why not get Republicans on the record?
Reporter: — and force Republicans to filibuster it?
Gibbs: [Republicans] were unwilling to do that. They were unwilling to —
Reporter: But you can introduce a bill is the point. You can introduce the bill.
Gibbs: Guys, my original answer was I don’t think the bill is the existence of the fight. It is that — look, John Boehner said —
Reporter: You’re not even — you’re not even fighting with them.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama was out on the stump in Madison, Wis., doing an admirable job of trying to recapture a little of that ol’ 2008 campaign magic. And guess what he was talking about: fighting.
“That election was not just about putting me in the White House. It was about building a movement for change that went beyond any one campaign or any one candidate. It was about remembering that in the United States of America, our destiny is not written for us –- it is written by us,” he told a raucous college-age crowd. “The power to shape our future lies in our hands –- but only if we’re willing to keep working for it and fighting for it and keep believing that change is possible.”
