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Aides to President Barack Obama played down prospects for a
major shake-up of his agenda, despite a shocking election setback
last week for his Democratic party.
But in an indication Obama was absorbing lessons from the upset
Republican victory for US Senate in Massachusetts, he turned to a
trusted outside adviser for help in guiding the party's strategy in
congressional elections in November.
David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager, was known for keeping
the political operation on an even keel by admonishing aides and
supporters against bed-wetting, or panicking in times of
trouble.
Plouffe will work with both the White House and congressional
Democrats, who worry more losses could be in store for them in
November.
Obama, who is taking a populist turn that includes a vow to crack
down on Wall Street excesses, is to deliver his State of the Union
address to Congress.
Analysts will be looking closely at that speech for any sign of
a reframing of his agenda.
"He is going to fight for what he's always been fighting for,"
White House adviser Valerie Jarrett told NBC's Meet the Press
program.
"We're not hitting a reset button at all."
While the White House has said Obama won't gloss over the
Massachusetts setback in his speech, Jarrett and other aides said
Obama was sticking to priorities such as seeking to overhaul the
healthcare system, calling for targeted actions to spur job growth
and putting new curbs on Wall Street.
The election of Republican Scott Brown to be a US senator from
Massachusetts means Democrats will no longer have a 60-vote
supermajority in the chamber.
As a result, Democrats will not be able to hold off Republican
procedural manoeuvres designed to block legislation, such as
Obama's proposed healthcare plan.
Analysts have speculated that Obama and the Democrats will be
forced to scale back the healthcare plan and possibly delay other
agenda items, such as a proposal for caps on carbon emissions as
part of the US fight against global warming.
Gauging the climate for healthcare
Obama's aides said he has no intention of abandoning the effort to
pass a healthcare bill.
"What he's doing and what happened over the course of the weekend, is there's been a series of phone calls and conversations to try to see ... what the climate is," Jarrett said.
"What is the art of the possible?"
"He is going to fight for trying to get absolutely as much as he
can to reduce the cost of healthcare, to provide insurance, provide
security and safety for those folks who have insurance now," she
added.
Polls suggest that anxiety over the economy and the unpopularity
of the healthcare bill have taken a political toll on Obama, whose
approval ratings have slumped to roughly 50% compared to 70% when
he took office a year ago.
The loss in Massachusetts' special election for the late Ted
Kennedy's Senate seat followed defeats for Democrats in governors'
races in Virginia and New Jersey.
But top White House adviser David Axelrod told ABC's "This Week"
program that he thought reaction to the Massachusetts Senate race
was "overblown."
"Washington loves the shake-up story, Washington loves the 'When
are we going to throw a body out?' story. That's not how we roll,"
Axelrod said.
Within the blogosphere, there has been speculation about whether
staff changes might be in store, with Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner a focus of comment even though the White House has
reiterated its confidence in him and given no indication it wants
to make a change.
Obama does not have a history of making big staff changes and did
not do so during the 2008 campaign even though his rivals, Democrat
Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain both did.
Axelrod and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said they believed
that the public's concerns about the healthcare bill had to do more
with the messy process in Congress of trying to pass the bill than
with the substance of the plan.
"I do think that the process has caused things like the health care
plan to be caricatured," Gibbs told Fox News Sunday.
But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell disagreed and accused
Democrats of refusing to listen to the American public.
"All the surveys, all across the country, and even in the most
liberal state in America, arguably, Massachusetts, the people are
telling us please don't pass this bill," McConnell told NBC.
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