President Barack Obama is doing the right thing in reaching out to congressional Republicans now, because his attempt to beat them down wasn’t working, says former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers.
“That approach wasn’t particularly successful,” Myers, who served as press secretary for Bill Clinton, told the “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC,
Politico reports.
“So it’s time to try something else. And this is something he’s been getting a lot of advice about recently, that he’s been a little aloof. He hasn’t invested time building relationships on either side of the aisle, quite frankly, and maybe it’s time to try a different approach. And this was a great first step.”
She was referring to Obama’s phone calls to several GOP senators last weekend, and his dinner with a group of Republican senators Wednesday. In addition, Obama is lunching Thursday with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Chris Van Hollen.
“I think he realized that there were limits to his effectiveness campaigning against the Republican House,” Myers said. “When the Republican House starts at 8 percent approval, how much further are you going to be able to drive it down?”
In dealing with the automatic spending cuts (sequester), Obama’s initial strategy was to try appealing to the public for higher taxes, hoping constituents would press their congressmen to bow to Obama’s will. But that didn’t work.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.