Obama appoints deputy to run 2014 middterm election, stop the bleeding

[Rapunzel]

http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/24/obama-appoints-deputy-to-run-2014-middterm-election-stop-the-bleeding/

Obama appoints deputy to run 2014 middterm election, stop the bleeding

Posted By Neil Munro On 3:48 PM 01/24/2014


President Barack Obama has set up a new office in the White House to help his Democratic allies avoid a huge defeat in the November polls.

He announced Friday that one of his political aides, David Simas, will take the job of “Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach.”

In practice, the job means that Simas will be the White House’s election chief. He’ll work with cooperating Democratic candidates to schedule fundraisers, allocate campaign funds, arrange presidential visits to districts where candidates want him to visit and help the president showcase candidates.

In the last few months, Simas has been trying to keep the Obamacare program up and running.

Obama showed his growing concern about the Democratic legislators’ chances in a recent interview with The New Yorker.

“I’m fighting for are things they care deeply about, and that I have a genuine commitment to seeing them succeed,” he said.

For years, Democratic legislators have said Obama has kept his distance from them, even when they back his unpopular proposals. Those concerns are rising in the months up to the 2014 election, partly because Obama’s poll ratings have crashed down to the mid-40s amid the failure of his economic, health-care and foreign policies.

“You haven’t seen me, I think, go out of my way to play against Democrats on the Hill. But I’ve tried to be supportive of them in every way that I can,” Obama said defensively.

Generally, low ratings for the president tend to drag down his legislative supporters. Obama’s ratings are so low that Republicans have a decent chance of wining a Senate majority in November, providing the GOP doesn’t split the party by pushing for an unpopular immigration increase.

“If there’s one thing that could blow up GOP chances for a good 2014, it would be an explosive debate over immigration in the House,” said a strategy proposal by William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard.

[Rapunzel]

Silly me, I thought it was illegal to run campaigns out of the White House.....  of course Boehner is busy playing golf, drinking and smoking to turn congress loose to investigate these things (/NOT SARC)

[mountaineer]

Obama brings back a White House political office
Associated Press
By NEDRA PICKLER | Associated Press – Jan. 24, 2014


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is bringing back an internal White House political office to help boost congressional Democrats as the midterm elections approach.

Obama announced Friday that he's named David Simas, a top adviser grappling with problems with his health care rollout, to oversee a new Office of Political Strategy and Outreach. Simas will look out for the needs of Democratic congressional candidates and evaluate political support for Obama's agenda.

Helping Democrats maintain control of the Senate is crucial to Obama's hopes of getting his priorities through Congress in the last two years of his presidency.

Obama made the unusual presidential move of closing the White House political operation in 2011 and shifting its director, Patrick Gaspard, to run the national party headquarters before choosing him last year as ambassador to South Africa. Congressional Democrats have been grumbling that no one inside the White House is focused on the political environment, with their jobs on the line and tied to Obama's performance.

The new office will be slimmed down from the 15-member operation that existed before 2011, with about a third of the staff. Its creation comes after Obama overhauled his legislative affairs office in recent weeks to improve relations with lawmakers. Democrats were concerned that last year's bruising partisan battles over health care and the budget could hurt their chances in the midterm elections.

Simas will advise the president on the political climate, handle requests for campaign appearances and coordinate strategy with the Democratic National Committee and other national and local party operations. The White House said he'll also tell administration officials what they can do legally when they get involved in political activity.

Simas is a Massachusetts native and former aide to Gov. Deval Patrick. His title at the White House has been deputy senior adviser for communications and strategy, which oversees polling and message development and has been recently consumed with handling the fallout of health care website problems.

[Formerly Once-Ler]

Silly me, I thought it was illegal to run campaigns out of the White House.....  of course Boehner is busy playing golf, drinking and smoking to turn congress loose to investigate these things (/NOT SARC)

Obama breaks the law and it's the RINOs fault.  At least you're consistent.