While much of the attention has been cast toward who President Barack Obama might face in his 2012 reelection bid from the Republican side, if he plays his cards right that whole storyline could prove irrelevant.
On Sunday’s “Panel Plus” segment of “Fox News Sunday,” the web extra of the Fox News Sunday show, senior political analyst Brit Hume has the math all figured out for the president’s reelection bid – entitlement reform and an improving economy. That sounds easier said than done – but the Obama could pull it off if he uses his political capital wisely, Hume explained.
“Look at this politically,” Hume said. “Let’s assume for the sake of discussion that the president decides to join this debate and enters into serious negotiations with Republicans joined by some Democrats and what comes out of it is some significant reductions in the projected levels of spending for Medicare, Medicaid and possibly Social Security.”
Hume said Obama can likely afford to take a little pushback from his own party if he took on such an endeavor. But the end result would be worth it.
“Now there’d be some reaction to that in his own party to be sure but he’s not going to lose the nomination,” Hume said. “You put that together with a distinctly improved economy and he’s acted on spending and there may even be a big signing ceremony with John Boehner standing there and all the other leaders standing there, Paul Ryan standing there. He becomes politically somewhat very hard to beat if he does that.”
Both “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace and contributor Mara Liasson agreed with Hume’s proposal.
“I thought you were going to say ‘untouchable,’” Wallace said. “It seems to me that the independents who desperately want progress — and they love bipartisan agreement.”
“The president understands that completely,” Liasson added.
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