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“A Majority is the Best Repartee”: Barack Obama and Congress, 2009‐2012
Author(s) -
Rudalevige Andrew
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00910.x
Subject(s) - legislature , negotiation , presidential system , rhetoric , political science , trace (psycholinguistics) , public administration , debt , political economy , presidential campaign , law , sociology , politics , economics , philosophy , linguistics , finance
Objective To trace the relationship between Barack Obama and Congress during his first term. Methods A largely qualitative review of the literature on presidential‐congressional relations and of Obama's interactions with Congress and the lessons he drew from them. Results Obama's practice, if not his rhetoric, shifted even before 2010 from an effort to transcend partisanship to using it to pass his legislative program. After the debt crisis negotiations of 2011, the president has sought to run against, and around, the legislative branch. Conclusions Polarized preferences and rigid partisanship made it impossible for Obama to expect large‐scale change to attract consensual support. That does not appear likely to change in the near future, whoever is president after the 2012 election.