Is Oregon In Play?

From: The Hill

Outspoken House liberal Rep. Peter DeFazio rates President Obama’s chances of getting reelected in 2012 as “very tough.”

DeFazio (D-Ore.), a founding member of the House Progressive Caucus, blasted Obama for conceding to Republicans on important issues such as the debt ceiling.

“The Republicans telegraphed to [Obama] they were going to use a fake crisis over the debt limit in order to muscle some major spending reductions or other things on to him. And that was in December. And what happens? Suddenly he flip-flops and concedes everything to the Republicans,” DeFazio said in comments reported Thursday by Portland’s KGW News. “Fight? I don’t think it’s a word in his vocabulary.”

DeFazio said he thinks Obama’s chances in the upcoming presidential race depend on the Republican nominee. “[W]ith a respectable, someone who is a little bit toward the middle-of-the-road Republican nominee, he’s going to have a very tough time getting reelected,” DeFazio said.

DeFazio also warned that Obama might have lost Oregon, which the president carried with nearly 57 percent of the vote in 2008. “I've just done six town-hall meetings, have seven to go but people are shaking their head and saying 'I don't know if I’d vote for him again,' ” said DeFazio, who is traveling his district in August during the congressional recess. “I believe Oregon is very much in play.”It is not the first time DeFazio has criticized Obama. In April, DeFazio slammed Obama for breaking a campaign promise by not allowing former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts on the wealthy to expire. DeFazio said at the time Obama needed to be pushed to “act like a Democrat.”

In this case, DeFazio’s comments echo another voice of recent criticism from the left. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Tuesday at a Congressional Black Caucus town hall in Detroit that the African-American community still wants to support the president, but feels voiceless in recent debates.

“The people want [Obama] to fight,” Waters said Thursday night on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” Waters said she hoped the outspokenness of the Congressional Black Caucus gave the president “strength.”