Obama's Pelosi Problem

Barack Obama gave an impressive speech last night. He spoke about a lot of principles which will help him win moderate independent, blue collar industrial state, and even some Republican votes. His speech was right on target for where he needed to go. Obama is giving Americans hope. Americans want hope. They want optimism. It is why we in Massachusetts voted for both Ronald Reagan and Deval Patrick.

As I watched Obama in front of the Greek Columns, I couldn’t help but think I was actually watching the opening scene of classical Greek tragedy. What all the rhetoric ignores is the practicality of Washington DC. I am sure voters in battleground states will be happy to hear Obama’s call for more natural gas, more clean-coal and more safe nuclear technology investments, tax cuts, higher standards and more accountability in education and the elimination of wasteful programs. The only problem is Obama can not do it by himself, he needs the legislature. There is no way, liberal San Francisco Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to support these programs. So in the end Obama will not be able to get it done. I’ve seen it before. Here in Massachusetts Deval Patrick campaigned on the same hopeful message including lowering property taxes. Once he took office, Therese Murray and Sal DiMasi blocked every major reform he promised and now Deval Patrick is talking about raising taxes to pay for his programs.

You don’t have to be clairvoyant to see the same thing happening to a very inexperienced junior Senator. While the Clinton enemies list and the outside of Washington sentiment gave Obama the nomination, he can not govern on it. And while Biden will be more help to Obama than Tim Murray is to Patrick. The fact remains, Obama will have a hard time working around Pelosi because he has no experience of working across party lines.