'World News' Political Insights: President Obama Faces Democratic Angst - ABC News

In a lame-duck session that will be anything but lame, the ties that bind the Democratic Party will be tested anew.

The week's big focus will be on the bipartisan summit to be held Tuesday at the White House -- a key indicator of how the president plans to govern under the new reality imposed by voters in the midterm elections.

But it's President Obama's relationship with his own party in its waning weeks of total control of Washington that still will determine a range of policy outcomes. Moves to the right in the coming weeks will be viewed with skepticism on the left, as Democrats still must guard against a revolt inside their ranks in their final weeks in control of the House.

Before a new House majority takes power, Congress convenes for a final burst of legislating with a crowded agenda that includes expiring tax cuts and unemployment benefits; a push to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy; and attempted ratification of a key nuclear weapons treaty with Russia.

In the middle lands the report of the president's deficit commission, the recommendations of which appear likely to provide a stark choice for a president who's seeking new footing.

The co-chairmen's initial recommendations were denounced by those on both sides of the aisle. Particular vitriol emanated by leading Democrats, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pronouncing the draft proposal "simply unacceptable."

The president has stayed mostly mum so far on the commission report. While he'll come under pressure to embrace its broad principles, Democrats will balk if he's seen as backing cuts to favored programs such as Social Security.

"Simply unacceptable" is also an apt summation of many leading Democrats' stance toward the likeliest emerging compromises on the expiring Bush tax cuts.

Top House Democrats continue to insist that the tax cuts for upper-income earners be allowed to expire. Republicans and some moderate Democrats want all the tax cuts extended; Obama has vowed repeatedly to allow them to lapse for couples making more than $250,000 a year.

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At a Rally, Obama Tries to Fire Up the Democratic Base - New York Times

With less than a month to go before the midterm elections in November, Mr. Obama, facing what most political observers predict will be significant losses of Democratic seats in Congress, was using every weapon in his arsenal to prod the people who helped propel him into the White House two years ago not to cede the partisan battlefield to the Republicans this year.

“Don’t make me look bad now,” Mr. Obama said. “I’m betting on you.”

Thursday’s rally, held at Bowie State University under beautiful clear skies, drew several thousand college students and local residents, many of them African Americas — core components of the Democratic Party base.

“I’m going to need you just as fired up as you were in 2008,” Mr. Obama told them.

When a heckler yelled “You’re a liar!” in response, people nearby spent the next few minutes shouting the heckler down, making it difficult for many in the audience to hear what the president, who was flanked on the dais by Maryland’s top elected Democrats, was saying.

“Two years ago, you defied the conventional wisdom in Washington,” Mr. Obama told the crowd. “I know everybody here remembers the inauguration. I know it was cold, but everybody here was having a good time. Beyoncé was singing.” He said it was imperative to harness that euphoria again.

Governor Martin O’Malley, who is once again battling the man he defeated when the Democrats were riding high in 2006 — former Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. — sounded familiar Democratic themes in introducing Mr. Obama. “They took six years to drive the country into a ditch, and then wonder why this president can’t make it right as rain in 18 months,” Mr. O’Malley said, to cheers.

But then, foreshadowing the tough road ahead for his own party this year, Mr. O’Malley added, perhaps unhelpfully: “They can take back New Jersey, they can take back Virginia, but they can’t take back Maryland!”

After the rally in Bowie, Mr. Obama was headed for Chicago to campaign to keep his old Senate seat in Democratic hands.

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Just a month to go: Democratic, GOP officials predict election success - USA Today

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