Obama Team Begins to take the Gloves Off

The Obama team is clearly embarking on a new and more aggressive strategic effort to draw attention to the size of his popular mandate and paint Washington as a place designed to obstruct the public’s will.

Case in point: White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, on the presidential plane today, directly targeted cable news as out of touch with America when asked about polling on the stim package.

I think it’s illuminating because it may not necessarily be where cable television is on all of this. But, you know, we’re sort of used to that. We lost on cable television virtually every day last year. So, you know, there’s a conventional wisdom to what’s going on in America via Washington, and there’s the reality of what’s happening in America.

In addition David Axelrod came out on the campaign plane, saying that the new Gallup poll proves how out of touch Beltway insiders are with the public at large.

“If I had listened to the conversation in Washington during the campaign for president, I would have jumped off a building about a year and a half ago.”

Josh Marshall recently noted, that President Obama had not really tapped into the real source of his power — his popular public support — as well as he could be.

The Obama team is clearly trying to change that.

Democrats Cave Again

House Democrats again proving that they will back down at the slightest whine by Republicans have removed a provision from their stimulus bill that would exempt states from the need to get waivers for covering family planning under Medicaid. The family-planning aid has been the subject of repeated Republican attacks over the past few days, and health care advocates were dismayed by the Democrats' decision to give in on its removal.

The Medicaid Family Planning State Option was a common-sense provision which would have expanded basic health care for millions of women, many of whom have lost their jobs in the current economic crisis, was a victim of misleading attacks and partisan politics by cry-baby Republicans.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs addressed the removal of the Medicaid provision, which occurred at Obama's request, during today's press briefing:

The president called Chairman Henry Waxman yesterday and said that, while he believed the policy of increased funding for family planning was the right one, that he didn't believe this bill was the vehicle to make that happen.

The one bright spot is that the House's move doesn't necessarily mean that the family-planning aid is dead. There have been suggestions out of the White House that it could be added to a comprehensive Healthcare bill. Senator Debbie Stabenow has also stated publicly that she would focus on how to attach the family-planning aid to another Senate bill coming down the pike.