Published: November 14, 2008 05:45 pm      

McConnell urges Obama to tackle 'big issues' from the center

Thinks Republicans shouldn't 'blindly oppose' new president

LOUISVILLE — In a “toxic political environment,” Sen. Mitch McConnell won what nationally syndicated columnist George Will termed the second-most important election of 2008.



The Republican Leader of the U.S. Senate will have fewer Republican colleagues when he gets back to Washington. They face a popular new Democratic president and Democratic majorities in Congress. McConnell, in a lengthy interview, said that means his role is different than when he had to promote the agenda of an unpopular president of his own party, but he thinks those who saw the election as an outright rejection of Republican values are overreacting.



“What you have here is a tendency to make it more complicated than it is,” McConnell said. “You had a very unpopular president, a rotten economy, a foul public mood, and a terrific candidate (in Barack Obama). To read into that some kind of widespread ideological shift in the country strikes me as overinterpreting the results.”



That is the assessment of many, including some in his own party. Either way, McConnell said, Republicans will spend their time in the political wilderness re-assessing strategy, “And I’m going to be right in the middle of it.”



McConnell has spoken with Obama since the election, taking the president-elect’s call on his cell phone while shopping in a Louisville grocery. McConnell advised Obama “to tackle the big issues,” such as Social Security and Medicare, and to “move to the middle.”



McConnell said as Baby Boomers age and retire, the unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Social Security are on “an unsustainable path” – and can be effectively dealt with only on a bi-partisan basis. “If you don’t have bi-partisan buy-in, you can’t get away with it politically,” McConnell said. Otherwise, the minority will likely sit idly by and then use it against the majority in the next election.



“My advice to him is to think big and do things in the center. Don’t try to go hard left,” McConnell said. He said Obama should resist demands to act on small issues which are pet projects of Democratic constituencies.



“If he does that, he might have a surprising degree of Republican cooperation,” said McConnell. “I hope he will take advantage of the honeymoon period to step up to the plate and do big things. I think it’s important for us (Republicans) not to just blindly oppose the new president.”



McConnell doesn’t think the $700 billion financial rescue package is precedent for future bailouts of private corporations.



“A once-in-a-hundred-years crisis that needed to be dealt with by the government is one thing,” said McConnell, comparing the banking system to the circulatory system of the economic body. “Bailing out industries is another. I’m among those who are going to take a long, hard look if we’re going to treat the rescue package as the first in a long series of such actions.”



McConnell cautions Obama about taxes as well. Raising the capital gains tax in the current economic conditions “is really a bad idea. I think he will be better off in times of economic slowdown to leave taxes alone.” McConnell said Obama can return to his campaign pledges on tax policy after the economy turns around.



Obama is likely to face the same international threats President George Bush faced, McConnell said: nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran as well as the war on terrorism. But he thinks the country is better prepared than when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11



“I think the new president comes to office with terrorists basically defeated in Iraq, contained or on the run in Afghanistan, and enhanced homeland security,” McConnell said. “I don’t think we should be inordinately concerned about him being tested. He may be, he may not be. But we’re in much better shape than we were on Sept. 10.”



McConnell, 66, was born in Alabama and lived there and in Georgia until he was 13. He recognizes the significance of Obama’s election.



“I remember separate drinking fountains. At the beginning of my life, I caught the end of the old, deep south and real segregation.” Obama’s election, he said, is a significant accomplishment, not only for America’s first African American president but for the country.



“I think he’s going to be very popular and very effective, and the question is how do you use that political capital? And my advice to him is to think big and do things in the center,” McConnell said.



RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.