U.S. President Barack Obama waves as he walks to Marine One before departing for Sweden and the G20 Summit in Russia from the White House in Washington September 3, 2013. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Barack Obama’s identity as a national figure in American politics was erected largely on the basis of his speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2004, and before that, his early, intense opposition to the Iraq War. That’s how he beat out Hillary Clinton for progressives’ hearts and minds — and the Democratic presidential nomination — five years ago, slamming her for having voted with the Bush administration to pursue WMDs. So that his administration is now whipping votes on behalf of armed intervention in Syria has put many of his most devoted supporters in a bind.
There are black legislators who represent districts where the president is personally very popular but the costs of war would be felt especially harshly. There are white liberals whose constituents have a deep-seated ideological beef with the idea of another Middle Eastern war, which fits neatly into the narrative that Obama is too much like his predecessor, George W. Bush, when it comes to foreign policy. Either way, the split on the left could be the proposal’s undoing given that most conservatives are keeping up their habit of opposing the president at almost every turn with, a few establishment Republicans in the party leadership being noteworthy exceptions.
As with conservatives Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, we should be on the lookout for how Democrats with national ambitions are coming down. Progressive Senators like Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who may have presidential bids in their futures are holding their fire, not willing to go after the president but also declining to jump on board with his plan. Liberal firebrands in the House like Alan Grayson who are content to take on the White House are whipping votes in opposition, and hope to find enough liberal Democrats queasy at the prospect of another Iraq that the whole thing falls apart. Most progressive commentators and columnists — and barometers of the cultural left like The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart — are furiously opposed. Overcoming the liberal echo chamber looks to be the heaviest lift here. Other than, of course, successfully intervening in Syria.
