"As president throws bones to political base, liberal anger wanes"

Shane D’Aprile and Sam Youngman (The Hill):

President Obama has appeased elements of his liberal base in recent months by repealing the Pentagon’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, reversing course on the Defense of Marriage Act and pursuing new gun-control measures.

Since enduring a near-mutiny among his political base during the debate on the extension of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts late last year, the outrage from the left expressed in the last Congress has noticeably subsided. And it’s no accident.
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“It’s a little unclear to me what the strategy of the White House is,” said Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), who was one of the leading Democratic critics of the tax-cut deal late last year. “Everything is obviously aimed at the election in 2012, and every once in a while I have some questions about that.

“One of the things I think is problematic is turnout,” he said. “We got clobbered in 2010, and look who turned out. There’s a message somewhere in there.” MORE...