Obama’s Last Stand, a new e-book by the Politico’s Glenn Thrush, contains a desperate exchange between House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Obama. As presented by Thrush, the exchange resulted from Pelosi’s realization that Obama’s drastic cuts in defense could spell doom for Democrats across the board this November.
Wrote Thrush: “In mid-2012…Pelosi requested a sit-down to ask Obama to reconsider the billions [in] defense cuts that would kick in automatically as part of the 2011 budget deal.” She argued the cuts would hurt Democrat House Members “with major defense contractors in their districts.” She even asked for an alternative set of cuts, “or any kind of plan that would keep local employers — and, by implication, local contributors — happy.”
But Obama would not budge.
According to Thrush, Obama believed reducing the cuts “would surrender his only leverage in forcing House Republicans to accept the expiration of tax cuts for the wealthy.”
The bottom line: Forget national defense, Obama’s reelection comes first.