Can the White House really be seeing things this way?

Paul West and Christi Parsons perform their duty as journalists stenographers and grant anonymity to a "senior administration official" to give them the White House spin on Obama's masterful political stroke with the tax deal, as they cheerfully report in Obama's tax-cut strategy may falter on other fronts Los Angeles Times 12/17/2010 (accessed 12/06/2010). The source "requested anonymity to provide a more candid assessment of the president's standing." Why do they bother with this charade? The "reporters" who write these stories should just ask the White House to e-mail them the text that they want them to print.

As the time fast approaches when the Republicans will be running the House and letting the crazy run amok, here's the anonymous official's brilliant "candid" observation:

Reporting from Washington — President Obama's year-end deal-cutting with Republicans, which produced an important compromise on extending George W. Bush-era tax cuts, has come to represent what White House officials see as a successful template for the president's role on other issues heading into a contentious 2011.

By emerging as a mediator, Obama showed a way of doing business that many voters were expecting but didn't see during most of his first two years. As a result, White House aides now feel they have "a little wind at our back," a senior White House official said. That could help point the way on other issues, such as trade, education and energy.

So much for that, hey, we're really, really going to fight the Republicans when they try to renew the billionaires' tax subsidy. The White House thinks this is a wonderful way to do business!



This "candid" anonymous official is promoting the virtues of sacred Bipartisanship which for some reason they seem to actually think voters care about:

Obama tried to run as an outsider in 2008. But once he was in office, his image as a different kind of politician "took some hits," according to the senior administration official, who requested anonymity to provide a more candid assessment of the president's standing.

Obama pushed a healthcare overhaul, stimulus package and other initiatives through Congress almost exclusively with Democratic votes.

"To people who thought he was going to break down some of the ideological wars, they didn't see that," the official said. "They saw him passing healthcare on a Democratic party-line vote."

In the White House view, the president is finally convincing voters that he's focused on the economy and ready to reach across party lines. That, they say, could help him rebuild his image in the new year and beyond, including for a 2012 reelection try.

But David Broder, the prophet of Bipartisanship (for Democrats) will be very happy to hear this.

Tags: barack obama, obama administration