Building the legacy backwards
by digby
Hmmm. Does this seem a little bit backwards to you?
When aides refer to "your policy," Kerry is always careful to correct them, saying, "the president's policy." For the last five years, this has been largely true: Obama has been the stern author of his administration's approach to the world. But Kerry has much more freedom to act than Hillary Clinton did. "He is operating in a fundamentally changed environment," Miller says. "In the first term, Barack Obama was the most controlling president since Richard Nixon." Now, with only three years to go, and beset with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, Miller says, "Obama is far more focused on the middle class than the Middle East.… He cannot dominate; he has to delegate." What may cause tension between them is that "unlike his boss, Kerry actually believes in the power of diplomacy," Miller adds. The White House disputes that characterization, but when it comes time to cut controversial, possibly politically toxic, compromises with the Iranians, Syrians, Israelis, or Palestinians, Miller asks, will Obama "have Kerry's back?"
Now he's interested in domestic priorities? Wouldn't it have made more sense to be obsessed with the economy when it was in freefall and we had unemployment approaching 10%? And a Democratic majority?
This may be BS, but if it isn't is explains a lot. The president may have made a fundamental error in his priorities and is now trying to right that. But it flies in the face of the way presidential legacies are usually shaped. As they move toward lame duck status they usually focus on foreign affairs since they have much less clout on the domestic front as the party starts to reform around whomever is slated to succeed him.
You can't help but wonder if he felt Clinton was unreliable and that he had to keep a close eye on her to make sure she didn't stray from his vision. Perhaps Kerry is someone in whom he has such total confidence that he can move on to the other pending matters on his agenda.
Whatever the motivation, if this is true it's quite unusual. It's hard to see how he burnishes his domestic record much with the pen and and phone, although it's certainly worth doing whatever he can. And as the article points out, Kerry's plate is extremely full and very ambitious. He'd better pull it off or this second term will be seen as the flip side of the frustrating first one. I'm certainly hoping that Kerry is successful, even a little bit. Apparently the president has a whole lot of faith in him.
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