Deal Announced on Stimulus; Weekend Vote Likely, But Where Is Obama’s Army of Supporters?

First, the latest news on the package:

Now, here’s another jaw-dropping observation about how the Obama administration is NOT operating at maximum energy and force:

Tonight, I heard that Barack Obama was stunned that Harry Reid had trouble keeping even his own Democrats in line. Doesn’t Obama realize that many of these Democrats come from rather conservative states, and that they’re under intense pressure from consituents? One “talking head” i heard said that letters and faxes are running 100 to 1 against the package! That is a LOT of pressure on an elected official! Which means one thing: Obama has not only lost control of the message, he has failed to energize his own carefully developed base of e-mail addresses to bombard Congressional offices with messages of support for Obama! Amazing, it is. Just amazing. Perhaps this is why, as Ani told us, Obama’s surrogates had to urge supporters to write kindly letters to the prez. You MUST read Ani’s article, “Maureen Dowd Berates Obama While Senators Durbin and Boxer Want Us To Kiss-y The Prez and Make-y Better.” (Ani’s piece is so good that I’m reprinting it shortly after this goes up.)

David Corn of The Nation raised that vital point: Why hasn’t Obama mobilized his army of millions to pressure their Senators and Representatives? Why hasn’t Obama and his highly successful campaign staffers like David Axelrod, now ensconced in the White House, had people sending out e-mails urging his supporters to write, call and e-mail, just like they did so often for Obama during the election cycle? In “Will Obama Mobilize His Millions of Supporters? The White House Responds,” Corn writes:

On Friday morning, I asked, “Will Obama mobilize his millions?” By that, I meant would he activate the 13 million or so Americans who had signed up with his campaign in order to pass the stimulus bill. Organizing for America, the spin-off of the Obama presidential campaign, is holding house parties on the weekend to discuss the recovery package. But Obama has yet truly to unleash his supporters. His push for the economic bill has not had much of a grassroots component.

On Friday afternoon, I was able to ask White House press secretary Robert Gibbs about this. First, I inquired if President Obama wanted the folks attending the weekend house meetings to pressure members of Congress to support the stimulus bill. (As of this writing, the bill, which had passed the House, was heading toward a vote in the Senate. After that, the two versions will have be reconciled and a final version approved by both chambers.) Gibbs replied with something of a platitudinous reply, noting that the president always encourages citizens to be involved in their government.

I followed up by noting that when Ronald Reagan came to Washington in 1981, determined to pass an economic package of tax cuts and draconian cuts in social programs, he delivered multiple televised addresses and urged his supporters to call their members of Congress and demand passage of this legislation. The phones on Capitol Hill lit up; the legislation was passed–over the objections of the leaders of the Democratic-controlled House. Would President Obama, I asked Gibbs, make a similarly explicit call. “We’ll ask those who support him…to move this economy forward,” Gibbs said.

In other words, maybe.

Why hasn’t the Obama White House already directly engaged its supporters in this fight? After all, Obama has repeatedly said this is the number-one priority of his administration. Perhaps Obama aides initially thought that it would not be necessary to call in its troops. If so, that was a miscalculation on at least two counts. First, it does seem that Obama will have to show some political muscle to get this bill all the way through Congress. Second, whether or not the Obama White House needed its supporters to win this thing, it would have been smart for the White House to have involved its backers in its first–and most important–initiative. That would give these people a sense of ownership. And what could be a better way of keeping those millions (and others) engaged. …

Just as I wrote in my previous article on the census mess, this is White House 101 stuff! Are none of these people thinking imaginatively of ways they can fashion and change public opinion on this bill?

Right now, the Republicans are running away with the positive press and the popular sentiments, while the Democrats are looking like a bunch of disorganized, dunderhead clowns!