The White House has stopped boasting about having public support in its scraps with Republicans after internal Democratic polls showed otherwise, says Ron Fournier, editorial director of the National Journal.
“A few weeks ago the White House aides were crowing that they had the argument on their side, the voters were behind them,’’ Fournier told Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.’’
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“And they very aggressively . . . mocked anybody who suggested that what the president should do is go up to the Hill, get out to dinner and meals with lawmakers . . . roll up his sleeves, and get about the dirty work of governing.
“Practically, overnight, he’s doing all of those things. And it is driven, at least in part, by both internal Democratic polling and public polling.’’
But Fournier said both Democrats and Republicans are giving the press plenty to work with.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan “hypocritically, in the campaign, took Obama to task for cutting Medicare budgets, which is exactly the same amount of money and the exact same cuts as what Ryan had taken out of his budget in 2012,’’ Fournier said.
“Well, now . . . that he’s no longer a candidate, he’s now assuming those cuts again. Both sides have dirty hands here and both sides need to grow up.
“Both sides need to find some common ground to solve what is a generational problem that is going to leave our kids and our grandkids in a world of hurt if our leaders don’t start leading right now.’’
Fournier said the problem for the president is that he is “head that wears the crown. Voters are going to blame you if Washington’s not functioning.’’
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