It appears the Obama Administration learned a lot in their first year, and one of the things they learned was that letting Congress set the President's agenda for him was a mistake, according to the White House communications director:
"It was clear that too often we didn't have the ball -- Congress had the ball in terms of driving the message," communications director Dan Pfeiffer said. "In 2010, the president will constantly be doing high-profile things to be the person driving the narrative."
The messaging adjustments are the result of an end-of-the-year analysis in which White House advisers said the president's communications team had not taken the initiative often enough and had allowed drawn-out debates in Congress, and relentless criticism by Republicans, to drown out his message.
These guys may not have gotten everything right in their first year on the job, but they were definitely paying attention:
The proposal to televise a Feb. 25 health-care summit with Republicans grew out of a conclusion by top White House advisers that Obama had bested House GOP leaders during a 90-minute televised discussion in Baltimore last month.
Okay, better late than never: yes, President Obama looks really good when contrasted directly with know-nothing obstructionists from the GOP, and is seen rebutting them directly.
They've laid out a three-pronged strategy, and it's not hard to see whose fingerprints will be on each of the elements:
First, they said, is a return to the disciplined messaging that was a hallmark of the 2008 campaign, in which unhelpful themes were filtered out in favor of topics that advanced the candidate's goals.
That'd be Plouffe.
Second, White House advisers promise a quicker, more aggressive response to GOP attacks on the president and his policies.
That'd be Vice President Biden. Expect to see more of him doing things like calling Dick Cheney a liar.
A third change is a return to the backdrops for Obama that aides considered so effective during the presidential bid...The goal is to have Obama travel outside of Washington -- what they call "the bubble" -- at least once a week, advisers said.
That'd be President Barack Obama.