Bill Daley: Dems ‘Only Shooting Themselves in the Foot’ by Opposing ObamaTrade

‘It’s only going to weaken the party and whoever the nominee is of the party next year’

TODD: “Well, it’s interesting; he wasn’t successful at lobbying Congress. You were brought in to try to help him fix this. It never was able to get fixed. George Condon wrote the following, he said, ;At the heart of the discontent is the belief by many members of the House and the Senate that the president is unmindful of the most basic rule of executive-congressional relations: don’t wait to call members until you need them. So when the president tried that late flurry of personal activity, it looked both panicky and ineffective.’ What is going on? Why has this been such a conundrum for him?”

DALEY: “Well, putting trade aside, look, I think there’s been a consistent message by some people, that the president isn’t engaged. I spent a year with him. And the truth is, you know, at this stage, after six and a half years, this president has met with, spoken to Democrats especially over and over and over again. Now was he one of them seven and a half years ago when he ran for president? No. But I think to pass this vote off in some way because he wasn’t nice to people or didn’t go and have a beer with them or go to the baseball game enough with them is kind of silly, especially when you consider the seriousness of this issue. In my opinion, both for Democrats, is the Republican House members in late President Bush’s term, turned on him and weakened him, it hurt them in the general election in 2008. If the Democrats continue to do this sort of thing, and especially on this issue and undercut the president, they’re only shooting themselves in the foot, because it’s only going to weaken the party and whoever the nominee is of the party next year.”

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