Obama sits out the anti-union attacks: Doesn't view organized labor as critical to winning in 2012

[Better Believe It]

"The Obama team does not view organized labor as critical to its political ground game" They assume that workers and their unions will automatically support and campaign for President Obama's re-election in 2012. Labor is once again taken for granted. BBI

Obama Sits Out State Fights
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
Wall Street Journal
February 24, 2011

President Barack Obama, after initially lending his support to organized labor, has stepped back from the fights spreading in state capitals from Wisconsin to Tennessee, leaving union officials divided about his tactics.

Mr. Obama is eager to occupy the political center, Democratic officials said, to help him forge a bipartisan deal on the nation's long-term finances that could strengthen his position heading into the 2012 election. Mr. Obama has already tacked to the center on taxes, on trade and by working to forge stronger ties with business leaders.

"Everybody is looking to the president on this one," said Amy Dean, a labor activist and former AFL-CIO official in California. "The grassroots infrastructure of the Democratic Party is organized labor." Rep. Raul Grijalva (D., Ariz.), a co-chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, agreed. "There's a bully pulpit there that the president has, and it needs to be used," he said. "I don't think you can turn the cheek on this one."

The Obama team does not view organized labor as critical to its political ground game. Union activists are helpful, Democratic officials believe, but Mr. Obama's political operation still has faith that its own campaign will be the central organizing force of the 2012 campaign.

Read the full article at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704520504576162820767202248.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird#articleTabs%3Darticle


-------------------------------------------