President Obama needs to sweep through his inner ranks and weed out those who aren’t doing him any political good — those who are simply telling him what he wants to hear, rather than what he needs to hear, a key Democratic strategist said.
Only the strategist — unnamed in The Hill article — used more colorful language: Mr. Obama “should take a flamethrower to his office,” the Democrat said.
“He needs dramatic change — it’s not even a debatable point,” the strategist went on, The Hill reported. “The general consensus is that the president is surrounded by people who do him more harm than good because they are more focused on pleasing him than they are challenging him or proposing a different course.”
The Hill reported other Democrats are saying similarly, due in large part to the president’s failure to pass much of his agenda since his re-election. Meanwhile, most Democrats seeking political re-election have seemed to distance themselves from Mr. Obama, preferring he stay far from their campaign trails.
“When he lost [David] Plouffe, when [David] Axelrod left, there aren’t too many people who can walk into the Oval Office and shut the door,” said Democratic strategist Peter Finn, The Hill reported. “And those guys could — they could speak really frankly to him. How does he put people in the White House with serious political chops?”
Meanwhile, Jim Manley, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the White House was going to have to face a quick overhaul soon, and it’s “probably something they’re going to have to consider for a lot of different reasons,” The Hill reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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