In Stimulus Debate,Obama Drifts Into Campaign Mode

President Obama is facing growing questions about his tone and the effectiveness of his leadership after he spent Thursday night mocking his political rivals and accusing them of playing games with the economic stimulus.In an off-the-cuff moment during his speech to House Democrats at a retreat in Virginia, the president ribbed Republicans, including former rival John McCain, who call the recovery package a "spending bill.""So then you get the argument, 'well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.' What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point," Obama said to laughter.Conservatives are complaining that while Obama held a set of good-faith bipartisan meetings with congressional leaders in January, now he's reverted to campaign mode in a bid to muscle the more than $900 billion package through Congress.Obama said Friday it is "inexcusable and irresponsible" to delay passage of the recovery plan."He reduced himself from being president of all the American people to being the partisan leader of the left," former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said of Obama's Thursday night speech. "The first month of your presidency is not a very good time to give a campaign speech."Senate Democratic leaders are scrambling to pick off the bare minimum of votes needed to pull the contentious spending package across the finish line. Republicans and some Democrats are still concerned about the size of the more than $900 billion package and want to pare it down considerably, though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants a vote by late Friday afternoon.Obama, who cultivated the image of a post-partisan leader, has been hitting campaign themes in recent days, accusing Republicans in media interviews, an op-ed in The Washington Post and public speeches of reverting to the failed policies of tax cuts. He referenced his own political capital Thursday night and Friday."They did not choose more of the same in November, "Obama said Friday."They sent us here to make change."He dismissed what he called "phony arguments and petty politics"Thursday."You can nit and you can pick and, you know, that's the game we all play here. We know how to play that game. What I'm saying is now we can't afford to play that game. We've got to pull together," Obama said.But those who are negotiating a compromise measure do not consider their meetings a political ploy....
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/06/stimulus-debate-obama-drifts-campaign-mode/
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