2.2.14: The Continued Effectiveness of the President

Among the many topics covered on today's program, which included a proper and serious piece on the future of the game of football on this Super Sunday, the central question of the day was whether President Barack Obama is now a lame duck in terms of policy making with one thousand days left in his second term.  Can he still be affective as president at this point?

A lot will depend how these upcoming midterms elections shake out of course, but one thing is for sure: The president is going to do anything he can to get the Republican-controlled House to vote on something else beside a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.  White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough indicated that next major vote on the 'something else' will probably be immigration, saying that the administration believes there will be a bill within the year.  It's politically beneficial for both parties that this get done really for the same core reason - to score the Hispanic vote in the future, a game in which the Republicans know they're way behind.

The in-trouble National Review's (http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/01/31/will-a-lawsuit-end-national-review.html) Rich Lowry described the president's State of the Union address as banal, which we kind of agree with, but for different reasons - his were purely cynical where ours is more like an expectation that he's going to mention everything.  Where Mr. Lowry dismisses, we look for where the emphasis lays.

And though Mr. Lowry slammed Doris Kearns-Goodwin in his comment, we agree more with her sentiment that President firmly and squarely put the question of income inequality into the frame, effectively starting the conversation.   We also agree with Mr. McDonough that the president's proposal of an increased minimum wage of $10.10 an hour is no small thing.  The president isn't going to get that number.  He'll get a number, but Republicans will argue that increasing the minimum wage will stifle job growth, but will compromise on something because a clear majority of the American people are in favor of the increase.

Here's the thing with minimum wage, what an increase does it set the base line higher from which everyone negotiates their salary.  It's like a trickle up, instead of down.  And anything up is not good for 'job creators' to create more jobs, if you believe in that argument.

The other important piece of legislation, as PBS's Gwen Ifill pointed out is the Keystone Pipeline and whether the president gives it the go ahead or not.  So far, the president is being bailed out on his decision to indeed go ahead with the project because of a newly released State Department study that says there would be minimum effects to the environment if the pipeline were installed.  We think the reason the president wants to say yes to Keystone, a decision that runs counter to a part of his base, is because he's more fixated on and covets more the United States being energy independent (or at least North American independent) over everything else.  It's a big part of the president's legacy, potentially, that doesn't get enough attention.

Mr. McDonough also talked about how the president has an agreement with big business to bring high-speed internet to millions of students, $500 million all in.  A big deal accomplishment and important, but not a legacy statement.  Our feeling is that if Washington is going to be dominated by lobbyists, then the people's number one lobbyist - the president - should be hitting them up for cash in return, in the name of education it's for the right reason.

Speaking of education, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) in his first Meet The Press interview, said that he was working on legislation to give people more school choice, a more prudent way of saying 'voucher system.' We disagree with a voucher system because it takes money out of the educational system, a place where infinitely more investment is needed overall.  However, the way he framed the argument got us thinking because he mentioned families of 'special needs' children having more choice. They should have more choice, but the tax credit from the voucher isn't going to cover the cost of a 'special needs' school without an additional government subsidy, which would add to the government's cost.

The bottom line is that we think the president still can be effective - we're going optimistic.  It is partly on the shoulders of the Republicans as well, as Robert Gibbs pointed out, but with just three policy points discussed here, he'll be plenty busy.

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What we said in a previous column about Chris Christie was conquered with by Chuck Todd when he said that it is no longer about Mr. Christie's presidential aspirations, but whether he keeps his governorship.  We didn't go that dire, but we just knew that the 'president' talk was inevitably going to end.

And what ever you think of sports or the Super Bowl or the future of America's most popular game, there's one thing for sure.  The one thing Republicans and Democrats can always have a spirited and fun conversation about is football.  Have a good Super Sunday.


Roundtable: National Review Editor Rich Lowry, Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, PBS NewsHour’s Co-Anchor and Managing Editor Gwen Ifill, Presidential Historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin, and NBC’s Chuck Todd.