CT Blue

The Washington Post reports on how the White House has kept in touch with its base:

Much of the White House’s interaction with liberal groups has taken place at a weekly meeting at a downtown Washington hotel. The “common purpose” gatherings are closed-door sessions between top Obama aides and officials from dozens of left-leaning interest groups such as unions, youth voting groups, women’s organizations, gay rights advocates and civil rights activists. Attendees are required to keep all proceedings secret and off the record.

This, it seems to me, is where Obama differs from Clinton, who had an almost intuitive ability to understand the mood outside the beltway. Obama is beltway all the way, even in how he chooses to communicate with the people that elected him.

Of course, I don’t know what goes on in those meetings, and presumably never will until it no longer matters, but it strikes me that it raises the same kinds of issues as does so much of beltway journalism. The price of getting access to people in the know is to report only what those in the know want you to report. Stray from the reservation, and you lose that precious access, which is all some of those journalists live for. The representatives from the “dozens of left-leaning interest groups”, Washington denizens by definition, will, wittingly or unwittingly, trade their principles for continued access to the “closed-door sessions” that marks them out as being special. That’s good for Obama, in that those same folks will go back to their organizations and run interference for him, but if anyone thinks that liberals won’t think these things through for themselves, they are sadly mistaken. It’s easier to herd cats than liberals.

There will be nowhere to go for the left in 2012. As a practical matter, we can do nothing other than re-nominate Obama. He’ll have no problem raising money either, since the corporate money he absorbs will more than make up for the grassroots money that won’t be forthcoming. While he’s working hard at throwing the election away, I still think he’ll win, as the Republicans seem hell bent on nominating someone that not even this country can stomach.

But for the candidates down the line, especially the Democrats running for Congress in the districts in which Republicans might otherwise be vulnerable, things might be a little more difficult. They are the ones who rely on the money from activists, as well as their shoe leather. The fact is, it’s those who feel strongly that donate money and time, and Obama has been working hard to curb their enthusiasm. If, as seems likely, Obama leads an assault on social security (see the Post article on that issue), it’s going to be hard for those folks to see the use in getting a Democratic Congress for him, particularly in light of his passive acceptance of obstructionism in the U.S. Senate. The conclusion seems inescapable that the only priority of the Administration is re-election. Beyond that, well, let’s just say their principles, if you can find them, are truly flexible.