US Politics Analysis: A Progressive Problem for Obama; A "Downgrade" Problem for America

The problem for Obama, however, is that to enact his economic plan he needs a landslide victory for both him and his party. The same can be said for Mitt Romney and Republicans. Neither of those outcomes are likely, nor is a return to bipartisan compromise.

Quite what that means for the elections of 2012 is unknown. What it means for the aftermath is clearer, if ominous: if there is no reconciliation of political divisions at the start of the new Administration and new Congress, another American "downgrade" becomes likely rather than possible.

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US Politics Analysis: The Progressives Attack Obama

US Politics correspondent Lee Haddigan writes:

The President has lost the support of his most committed and enthusiastic activists. And they are not about to sit idly by while Obama cruises to the Democrat nomination for President in 2012. I think it was Shakespeare who once wrote that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. 

It will be interesting to see over the next few months whether Hillary Clinton tries to remake herself surreptitiously as the new voice of progressivism.

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