Obama Plays to Liberal Base, Not Independents

At a low point in President Barack Obama‘s first term, a White House official conceded the president had lost a disturbing amount of ground with independent voters.

We have to get them back, the official said in an interview.

So began a deliberate effort on the president’s part to court the swing voters who helped him win the White House in 2008. He made deficit reduction a priority, while unnerving core Democrats with pledges to pare entitlement costs in pursuit of a budgetary “grand bargain.”

Mr. Obama