Wall Street Journal (by Laura Meckler and Carol Lee): President Barack Obama campaigned for president in 2008 with a long list of ambitious goals. Among them: cut middle-class taxes, tackle climate change, cover the uninsured, overhaul Wall Street regulations and pass sweeping immigration changes. This time around, his scope is smaller.
Asked on a recent late-night talk show what one "magical thing" he would snap his fingers to get done, Mr. Obama offered this: cut federal subsidies for oil companies and use the money to develop more alternative-energy resources.
Mr. Obama's new campaign speech, along with his first big round of television ads and his website, are largely devoted to defending his record as president and critiquing his opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, rather than describing the vision of a second Obama term.
The two biggest unfinished domestic items from the first term are immigration and energy, and both are expected to be focal points of a hypothetical second term. In both cases, though, Mr. Obama is describing his proposals in modest terms compared with his 2008 goals.
During his kickoff campaign rallies, he pitched the Dream Act, which would help those brought to the U.S. illegally as children achieve permanent status, but made no mention of his broader immigration proposal, which would, among other things, offer a path to citizenship for all those here illegally.
On energy, he proposes investments in renewable sources and other alternatives to oil, but not "cap and trade," the more ambitious trading system designed to reduce carbon emissions.
The approach isn't unusual for presidents campaigning for a second term after bold initiatives sought in a first term have run into stiff opposition. Both Bill Clinton in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2004 pared some of their ambitions. A Clinton proposal for a broad child-care network, for instance, morphed into a pitch for a law to let workers spend more time off with their kids.
Mr. Obama's advisers say the president will flesh out his agenda over the next six months, and that it is natural for a second-term agenda to be more targeted. The president fulfilled some of his major promises, such as ending the war in Iraq, and has moved major legislation through Congress, including on health care and financial regulation, that must now be implemented.
"When you're running for re-election, your vision doesn't change," said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign. "The question is, 'What more do we have to do to achieve it?' "
Some Republicans have assailed Mr. Obama for what look like small-bore ideas. Others suspect Mr. Obama is disguising an ambition to govern from the left if he wins a second term and the re-election pressure is off.
"First terms have a way of showing you exactly what to expect in a second term," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who is advising Mr. Romney's campaign. "A second term would just be more of the same old big government policies we've already endured for 3½ years."
The president's rhetoric and his hoped-for legacy offer some clues. Mr. Axelrod said Mr. Obama "wants to be remembered, not just as the president who led the country back from the recession, but who helped lay the foundation for long-term growth and the resurgence of the middle class." And at the heart of Mr. Obama's pitch is a populist message that everyone should get a "fair shot," do their "fair share" and play "by the same rules."
In policy terms, that translates to higher taxes on upper-income Americans in return for spending on Obama priorities such as education.
Those markers will be important in the budget battles likely to dominate 2013, with Mr. Obama, if re-elected, laying out what would amount to an opening offer, though not the "grand bargain" he and Republicans tried to negotiate last year.
Lately, much of Mr. Obama's time has been spent on more narrow matters, often chosen in an effort to draw political contrasts with Republicans.
He made a multiday pitch for extending lower student-loan rates, something Republicans also supported, though they disagreed on how to pay for it. He spent weeks pitching the "Buffett Rule," a largely symbolic proposal that would set minimum tax rates for people earning over $1 million a year, a plan that would have little impact on the deficit.
If the president wins with his less-ambitious agenda, he may not have a strong mandate to pursue other major policy goals, said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with ties to the White House.
"As a political matter, I can't really assail it," Ms. Tanden said. "As a governing matter, it may raise some questions."
Asked on a recent late-night talk show what one "magical thing" he would snap his fingers to get done, Mr. Obama offered this: cut federal subsidies for oil companies and use the money to develop more alternative-energy resources.
Mr. Obama's new campaign speech, along with his first big round of television ads and his website, are largely devoted to defending his record as president and critiquing his opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, rather than describing the vision of a second Obama term.
The two biggest unfinished domestic items from the first term are immigration and energy, and both are expected to be focal points of a hypothetical second term. In both cases, though, Mr. Obama is describing his proposals in modest terms compared with his 2008 goals.
During his kickoff campaign rallies, he pitched the Dream Act, which would help those brought to the U.S. illegally as children achieve permanent status, but made no mention of his broader immigration proposal, which would, among other things, offer a path to citizenship for all those here illegally.
On energy, he proposes investments in renewable sources and other alternatives to oil, but not "cap and trade," the more ambitious trading system designed to reduce carbon emissions.
The approach isn't unusual for presidents campaigning for a second term after bold initiatives sought in a first term have run into stiff opposition. Both Bill Clinton in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2004 pared some of their ambitions. A Clinton proposal for a broad child-care network, for instance, morphed into a pitch for a law to let workers spend more time off with their kids.
Mr. Obama's advisers say the president will flesh out his agenda over the next six months, and that it is natural for a second-term agenda to be more targeted. The president fulfilled some of his major promises, such as ending the war in Iraq, and has moved major legislation through Congress, including on health care and financial regulation, that must now be implemented.
"When you're running for re-election, your vision doesn't change," said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign. "The question is, 'What more do we have to do to achieve it?' "
Some Republicans have assailed Mr. Obama for what look like small-bore ideas. Others suspect Mr. Obama is disguising an ambition to govern from the left if he wins a second term and the re-election pressure is off.
"First terms have a way of showing you exactly what to expect in a second term," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who is advising Mr. Romney's campaign. "A second term would just be more of the same old big government policies we've already endured for 3½ years."
The president's rhetoric and his hoped-for legacy offer some clues. Mr. Axelrod said Mr. Obama "wants to be remembered, not just as the president who led the country back from the recession, but who helped lay the foundation for long-term growth and the resurgence of the middle class." And at the heart of Mr. Obama's pitch is a populist message that everyone should get a "fair shot," do their "fair share" and play "by the same rules."
In policy terms, that translates to higher taxes on upper-income Americans in return for spending on Obama priorities such as education.
Those markers will be important in the budget battles likely to dominate 2013, with Mr. Obama, if re-elected, laying out what would amount to an opening offer, though not the "grand bargain" he and Republicans tried to negotiate last year.
Lately, much of Mr. Obama's time has been spent on more narrow matters, often chosen in an effort to draw political contrasts with Republicans.
He made a multiday pitch for extending lower student-loan rates, something Republicans also supported, though they disagreed on how to pay for it. He spent weeks pitching the "Buffett Rule," a largely symbolic proposal that would set minimum tax rates for people earning over $1 million a year, a plan that would have little impact on the deficit.
If the president wins with his less-ambitious agenda, he may not have a strong mandate to pursue other major policy goals, said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with ties to the White House.
"As a political matter, I can't really assail it," Ms. Tanden said. "As a governing matter, it may raise some questions."
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