CASPER
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WASHINGTON – Just back from a recent day trip to Georgia, President Barack Obama walked into the Oval Office and told his senior staff to get a grip.
"We all rise and fall together," he declared that afternoon, as Washington neared fever pitch over tensions on his team. Keep your eyes on the prize, Obama directed, not on the daily ups and downs.
It was classic Obama, again summoning one of his favorite tenets in a crisis: the Long View.
It's a high-minded notion that elected leaders love to invoke, both privately and publicly. It makes politicians seem above the dirtiest aspects of campaigning and governing.
They rarely adhere to it. With all of the House and a third of the Senate going before the voters every two years, and a media environment that moves by the minute, the long view can get pretty short. Scoring a point — now — can itself feel like a do-or-die achievement in the long slog to pass prized legislation or survive re-election.
But for Obama, it's been a crucial prescription he reaches for when times get tough, whether during his come-from-behind White House bid, the recent imbroglio over chief of staff Rahm Emanuel or policy setbacks in his often embattled presidency. Now, with the fate of his health care overhaul likely to be known by the end of this week or soon after, the outcome — either way — will test his loyalty to the long view as much as anything that has come before.
To be sure, Obama is not above short-term gain: Look at those deals for certain states he allowed into the health care bill to attract specific lawmakers, provisions he now wants to cut because of their distastefulness to the public. And he's not shy about political points, as seen in his attacks on the insurance industry or barbs thrown at Republicans.
Still, for the most part he's refused to get mired in and panicked by the inevitable low points in politics. That set Obama apart during the campaign and helped him succeed.
If the health care plan fails, Obama will face intense criticism for gambling his presidency on an overly ambitious, ultimately doomed effort. The current finger-pointing about who's at fault, with a Democratic Congress no less, would get more intense. Obama's political capital would be near zero, at least for a time, leaving him little ability to get anything else done and almost no chance of cooperation from Republicans as they smell weakness after a victory over a popular president.
"We all rise and fall together," he declared that afternoon, as Washington neared fever pitch over tensions on his team. Keep your eyes on the prize, Obama directed, not on the daily ups and downs.
It was classic Obama, again summoning one of his favorite tenets in a crisis: the Long View.
It's a high-minded notion that elected leaders love to invoke, both privately and publicly. It makes politicians seem above the dirtiest aspects of campaigning and governing.
They rarely adhere to it. With all of the House and a third of the Senate going before the voters every two years, and a media environment that moves by the minute, the long view can get pretty short. Scoring a point — now — can itself feel like a do-or-die achievement in the long slog to pass prized legislation or survive re-election.
But for Obama, it's been a crucial prescription he reaches for when times get tough, whether during his come-from-behind White House bid, the recent imbroglio over chief of staff Rahm Emanuel or policy setbacks in his often embattled presidency. Now, with the fate of his health care overhaul likely to be known by the end of this week or soon after, the outcome — either way — will test his loyalty to the long view as much as anything that has come before.
To be sure, Obama is not above short-term gain: Look at those deals for certain states he allowed into the health care bill to attract specific lawmakers, provisions he now wants to cut because of their distastefulness to the public. And he's not shy about political points, as seen in his attacks on the insurance industry or barbs thrown at Republicans.
Still, for the most part he's refused to get mired in and panicked by the inevitable low points in politics. That set Obama apart during the campaign and helped him succeed.
If the health care plan fails, Obama will face intense criticism for gambling his presidency on an overly ambitious, ultimately doomed effort. The current finger-pointing about who's at fault, with a Democratic Congress no less, would get more intense. Obama's political capital would be near zero, at least for a time, leaving him little ability to get anything else done and almost no chance of cooperation from Republicans as they smell weakness after a victory over a popular president.
