President Barack Obama has allowed his Organizing for Action group to put one toe into the Syria quagmire.
But he isn’t pushing OFA’s activists to back his increasingly unpopular call for missile strikes on Syria.
Jon Carson, the group’s executive director, sent out an email Tuesday telling the group’s members about that that night’s address by the president regarding the situation with Syria.
Instead of backing Obama’s announced policy, he portrayed the Syrian crisis as a temporary diversion from Obama’s domestic agenda of bigger government, more immigration, environmental regulations and Obamacare implementation. Those are the hot-button issues that Obama is emphasizing as he tries to build a big Democratic turnout in next year’s 2014 midterm elections.
Obama is also running away form his initial policy of pushing Syria. He told TV views last night that his wife opposes the policy, and that he is interested in striking a Russian-backed deal that would stop any missile strike.
Carson’s email to OFA’s members had only a token mention of Syria.
“I’ve heard a lot from supporters about Syria over the last week. This debate is an important one for our country,” Carson said.
“For everyone asking for more information, I wanted to make sure you had the chance to hear from President Obama himself. He’s addressing the nation tonight,” he said.
Carson’s email quickly switched the topic back to Obama’s domestic agenda.
“There’s a lot to do to pass the agenda Americans voted for last fall — that’s work that we’ll remain focused on. More on that soon,” he wrote.
“For now, thank you for everything you do,” he said.
The mail was sent out a week House Speaker John Boehner’s staff highlighted the absence of Obama’s group from the Syrian dispute, which began after the Syrian government fired chemical weapons into rebel-held districts on Aug. 31.
Obama’s Organizing for Action grassroots group “is not exactly ‘Flooding the Zone’ on Syria,” said a morning message from Michael Steel, a flack for House Speaker John Boehner.
Steel sent another message out at 2:54 p.m. “Folks – With a big vote on President Obama’s Syria policy looming, Organizing for America doing a protest in Speaker Boehner’s Congressional district tomorrow on… his opposition to ObamaCare.”