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Analysis: So much for change coming to Top Stories

Washington Obama, Boehner each earn wins in budget pact

Analysis: GOP won first round of budget battle
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By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent – Sat Apr 9, 12:16 pm ET Last-minute budget deal brings relief, disgust

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama promised to change Researchers find superbug gene in New Delhi
Washington's ways. Yet he's as caught up in them as ever. water
7 killed, 15 wounded in Dutch mall shooting
As the week began, Obama kicked off his re-election bid with a sunny
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video of people talking about their hopes and needs, the very image of
life outside Washington politics. The Key to a Long Life: Conscientious Habits
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By week's end, Obama was mired in budget negotiations, canceling
NBC's `Today' show faces transitions
trips and scrambling to stave off a government shutdown that could
AP – President Obama walks from the State
Dining Room to the Red Room as aide Brian
only undermine the public's faith in his leadership. More Top Stories »
Mosteller, right, holds …
It was the messy business of governing, and how it's going to be in
this long campaign for incumbent Obama.

Beyond the vision for economic competitiveness he wants to talk about, Obama is chasing a second term
while trying to make a deeply divided government work. He got bogged down in legislative tactics in his first
two years, even when he won fights on health care and other issues.

The goal now is to avoid all that. He can't.

In this test of leadership, the White House says Obama wrangled the budget compromise he wanted,
spending cuts he supported without shelving his priorities or accepting unacceptable policy changes.

His administration portrayed it as an example of bipartisan cooperation of the highest stakes.

Yet the government was on the brink of closing, and many people were wondering how that could happen, or
why.

This is change?
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The showdown was a reminder that for all a president's powers, there's much beyond control. Think Libya,
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In this case, the new House Republican majority, led by Speaker John Boehner, seized on a must-pass
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In fact, he was up to his neck in it.

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Obama used a veto threat to make clear he would not accept the scope of GOP spending cuts. He said he
would accept no more temporary extensions to keep the government running for a few weeks at a time
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unless there was a broader deal in hand. He kept saying leaders had to act like grown-ups. your friends.

The White House said his strategy was to stay behind the scenes, work the phones and let his senior aides
do the negotiating. That type of role provided an opening for Republicans to question his leadership. It also
led to rumblings from frustrated lawmakers in his own party who wanted the president to openly attack the
cuts Republicans wanted.
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The White House figured it would take those hits. It did.
Glenn Beck lost it
A Gallup poll in late March found declining numbers of people who said Obama was a strong and decisive
Opinion: Beck's broadcasts
leader: a little more than half of those polled, compared with 60 percent one year ago and 73 percent two perfectly rode wave of fear.
years ago. » More from Washington Post

The White House believed that a better result would come if Obama didn't try to overheat the issue. Officials
believed that people were worried about gas prices, not a spending squabble and that voters didn't hire
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Obama to be a legislator. Fact Check: Why the South
seceded from the Union.

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Analysis: So much for change coming to Washington - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110409/ap_on_an/us_obama_a_test_of_...

Obama would go public when it meant the most. » More from Washington Post
The Ticket
That was Tuesday. The president suddenly got vocal.
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devoted to politics.
He said Americans didn't want games but results. The pragmatic approach is what White House strategists
believe will bring back the election-turning independents to Obama.
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"There are some things we can't control," he said. "We can't control earthquakes; we can't control tsunamis; Are Japan's nuclear plant heroes
we can't control uprisings on the other side of the world. What we can control is our capacity to have a doomed to death?
reasoned, fair conversation between the parties and get the business of the American people done." » More from The Week

But it wasn't getting done, and his voice was not the only one setting the tone.
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"The president isn't leading," Boehner said Wednesday. "He didn't lead on last year's budget, and he clearly What fruits and veggies should
is not leading on this year's budget." you buy?
» More from ABC News
Obama met with Boehner and Reid four times in the White House during the week. He still went to the
Philadelphia area Wednesday to talk about energy. He looked comfortable, almost carefree, as he laughed
with workers at a wind-turbine company about their families and their cars. Education

But Washington had sucked him back in. By Friday, he canceled a trip to Indianapolis, scrapping the
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attention he wanted to give to clean energy. People
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He scrapped a weekend getaway with his family to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. That's no problem in these 7
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While working to avoid a shutdown, Obama's team thought the White House would come out OK in the
public's mind if it came to that. Change Careers to Get Happier
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The thinking was that the president had presented a reasonable case of agreeing to spending cuts without can make the career change
going too far, and that people would be angry with Republicans if the government closed up partially over a you crave.
policy disagreement about abortion.

Only when the standoff grew most dire did it end.

But the budget mess showed how government isn't supposed to operate. No matter who's to blame, all will
be, including a president running for election this time from inside Washington's ways.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — White House Correspondent Ben Feller has covered the Bush and Obama presidencies
for The Associated Press.

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Analysis: So much for change coming to Washington - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110409/ap_on_an/us_obama_a_test_of_...

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Planned Parenthood, abortion and the budget fight AP
Post a Comment Comments 1 - 10 of 4350 First Prev Next Last

Oldgrunt 10 hours ago Report Abuse 1086 17

There's a lesson here. NO ONE can change DC until the lobbyist are gone. NO ONE.
Replies (25)

AmerAsian Capitalist 11 hours ago Report Abuse 1584 28

Wanna make things easier and honest in Washington DC? Push to outlaw lobbyists. Done. Lets
see how many people in office will actually stay.
Replies (41)

The Darned Truthful Econo ... 11 hours ago Report Abuse 1705 31
Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason.

Mark Twain
Replies (39)

Pete In VA 10 hours ago Report Abuse 644 9

A balanced budget 7 months in to a new fiscal year. Any of us that did NOT do our job for 7
months would be fired. These clowns in DC are actually feeling good about themselves because
the government did NOT shutdown.

Our elected officials are a JOKE.

Replies (19)

Alice Wonderland 11 hours ago Report Abuse 1213 24

These politicians are really starting to piss me off ,
Replies (27)

Ernie 10 hours ago Report Abuse 638 11

Washington is out of control.
We are beyond the point, where Americans need to take control.

Our government has sold her soul, to the highest bidders.

Replies (11)

B 13 hours ago Report Abuse 1123 24

"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." -Thomas Jefferson
Replies (23)

B 14 hours ago Report Abuse 1107 31

"Equal rights for all, special privileges for none"
Thomas Jefferson quotes (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Author of the Declaration of
Independence. 1762-1826)
Replies (24)

B 13 hours ago Report Abuse 975 27

"It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in
any country where virtue and knowledge prevail." ~ Samuel Adams
Replies (30)

3 of 4 4/9/2011 4:35 PM
Analysis: So much for change coming to Washington - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110409/ap_on_an/us_obama_a_test_of_...

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Bearsfan#1 14 hours ago Report Abuse 1138 35 Entertainment Sports Tech Politics
These people are a joke. These REPRESENTIVES of the people make over $170,000 a year and Science Health Travel Most Popular Odd
News Opinion
I don't see anything about them taking pay cuts to help OUR country. How about they start
discussing issues that truly affect us Americans such as paying over $3.50 a gallon of gas, rising Yahoo! News Network RSS News Alerts Weather
Alerts Site Map Help Feedback
utility bills, rising food prices, or sending loads of money overseas to help countries that won't ever
help us when we need it. How many times did we have countries provide us help when Hurricane
Katrina destroyed New Orleans? Quit wasting their time and find ways to help the American
people. I would love to see those REPRESENTIVES do what is best for the people rather than
what is best for there pockets and ego. Maybe us middle and lower class people should run for
office. We wouldn't get caught up in drama such as this debacle.
Replies (40)

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