News

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Barack Obama's presidency is not helping the Democratic Party. That's the conclusion drawn from a memo published this week by Doug Sosnik, a former political director for the Clinton White House.

Politicos are buzzing about Sosnik's conclusion that, while Obama’s support has remained relatively steady, the rest of the Democratic Party has steadily lost ground because of his actions.

“Obama's successful 2008 campaign and his 2012 re-election masks a party that is also in decline and one that is at considerable risk when Obama is no longer on the scene,” Sosnik wrote. “Since Obama was elected president, the Democrats have lost nine governorships, 56 members of the House, and two Senate seats. During his presidency, the party’s favorability has declined 15 points.”

Image

Sosnik writes that Obama’s most prized – and nearly his only – accomplishment in Congress, ObamaCare, is hurting the Democrats. Sosnik assesses that ObamaCare and the likelihood that it will raise the cost of health care is, in part, to blame for a “sluggish” economic recovery.

The Washington Examiner reported this week that 17 of the nation’s largest insurance companies have said their premiums will rise 100-400 percent under ObamaCare.

The failing economy and Obama's decision to raise money to promote his own agenda – so far, he has collected $5 million toward his goal of $50 million to fund Organizing for Action, his permanent army of community organizers – rather than the party are other factors, Sosnik writes.

Sosnik overlooks the fact that President Obama's radical social policy agenda, especially his extreme pro-abortion stance, certainly harms Democrats nationwide, says Washington Times columnist and executive director of American Life League Paul Rondeau.

This is particularly true among Catholics, 50 percent of whom voted for Obama in 2012.

“Privately, he assured Catholics that ObamaCare would not include abortion, but then gave Planned Parenthood everything they wanted,” Rondeau said, noting that the abortion giant “helped write $1 billion dollars of abortion and $375 million of sex indoctrination into that bill.”

“His entire presidency has been tied to Planned Parenthood,” Rondeau said.

Click “like” if you want to end abortion!

As an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama voted four times against laws that would protect babies who survived abortions, similar to the Pennsylvania laws that put convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell behind bars earlier this week.

Obama has refused to comment on the Gosnell trial, before or after its conclusion.

Obama proved his loyalty to the nation’s largest abortion chain, Planned Parenthood, to the point of threatening to shut down the government and deny soldiers their paychecks in order stonewall efforts to cut Planned Parenthood funding from the budget.

“With Obama at the head, the Democratic Party is becoming associated with extreme left-wing politics,” Rondeau told LifeSiteNews.com. “Most people want to think of themselves as moderate. That is becoming impossible as a Democrat under Obama’s rule.”

The president's polarizing actions and political outlook may harm Democrats in more moderate states.

Instead, Sosnik said the president has created a type of cult of personality that boosted his own support but hasn’t translated into party support.

Obama has taken a hands-off approach with Congress and campaigned for re-election on an ill-defined policy agenda.

“There’s not a single member of either party who fears paying a political price for not falling in line with the president,” Sosnik wrote.

Obama has accomplished very little with regard to addressing the budget and deficit woes that have plagued Capitol Hill during his time in the White House.

Constituents, in turn, are dissatisfied with both parties. Sosnik's memo shows support for the Republican Party “moved in the same direction at the same time.”

Sosnik's memo was written before the IRS scandal and the revelation that the White House had tapped journalists' telephones, as well as new revelations about the death of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya in Benghazi. These scandals have the potential to affect the president's personal popularity.

Rondeau told LifeSiteNews, “Obama seems to believe that a presidency built on “half-truths, abrogating First Amendment rights, and social extremism is what American’s wanted.”

He added, “Obama is now finding out otherwise.”