A Likely Story

Peter Wallsten reported in the Washington Post yesterday that, “With 2012 looming, Obama focuses on economy.”

Does that sound familiar? It should.

Obama was still learning his way around the White House in March 2009, less than two months after his inauguration, when it was already being reported that

The new buzz-word in Washington is “pivot,” used to describe a fundamental change in public policy.

Team Obama has done a lot of pivoting — on issues both foreign and domestic. Nowhere has it pivoted more, though, than on the economic front.

Ten months later, in December 2009, it was still being reported that “The Next Media Buzzword: Obama Pushes “Hard Pivot” On Economy, Iran.”

Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 2010:

Obama pivots to the economy and jobs: “President Obama made his long-telegraphed pivot Friday to the economy and jobs….”

Or maybe he didn’t, since it wasn’t until August 2010, after announcing that “We have met our responsibilities” in Iraq that Obama told the nation that “It is time to turn the page” and that now “our most urgent task is to restore our economy.”

Or maybe that was just the prelude to pivot, since the next month, September 2010, the proverbial pivot still hadn’t occurred. And when it did come, Byron York reported, Obama’s ‘pivot’ to the economy comes far too late.

In early November 2009, as the fight over Obamacare threatened to stretch all the way to New Years, I discussed the battle with a well-connected Democratic strategist. He wanted health care to pass, but he was eager for President Obama to turn his attention to the issues Americans cared about most: the economy and federal spending. “As soon as health care reform is over, he needs to pivot hard to becoming a deficit and spending hawk and a jobs creator,” the strategist told me.

Of course, the health care fight didn’t end quickly. Two days before Christmas, Politico reported that White House officials believed it would last until February — after which Obama would make a “very hard pivot” to the jobs issue.

But health care dragged on even longer; the bill didn’t pass until March 21. Even then, with his No. 1 priority accomplished, Obama did not execute the long-awaited pivot and go full-tilt on the economy. In fact, at times it was hard to tell just what he was doing. “So has he already made the hard pivot to jobs, or are we still waiting for that to happen?” a reporter asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs during that time….

Now, with unemployment stuck at 9.6 percent, it appears the waiting is over. On his 595th day in office, less than eight weeks before voters go to the polls, Obama is making that now-infamous pivot….

Several months later, in December 2010, pundits were still awaiting the pivot, and they thought they heard it announced in Obama’s December 2010 press conference when the president announced, ponderously, that “we now have to pivot and focus on jobs and the economy.”

So, has the proverbial pivot finally occurred? Hope, like Change, springs eternal.

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