Is Obama Trying to Out-Romney Romney--Already?

Whatever the real reason for the timing, it's interesting that President Obama decided that this week was the moment--when consensus is gelling that Mitt Romney is the all-but-inevitable GOP nominee--to announce a very Romney-esque cost-cutting plan.


At a White House event complete with business CEOs as props and a slide presentation (the kind Bain Capital once perfected), the president urged Congress to give him the power to merge a plethora of trade and commerce functions that are now dispersed among the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Trade and Development Agency. The consolidation would save some $3 billion and 1,000 to 2,000 jobs over ten years, the White House said.


It was, in other words, precisely the kind of government-slashing exercise that Romney, the numbers-whiz-consultant-turned-governor-turned-candidate, has been promising we'll get from him as president. To be fair, Obama had promised such a move in his last State of the Union address, and the next SOTU is fast approaching. But one wonders whether this will be the first in a series of moves intended to convey to voters: you don't need Mitt Romney. You've already got me.


As I've previously posted, Obama and Romney are probably far more alike than different in mindset, and that's about a lot more than common Harvard degrees and a penchant for universal health care (Romneycare was, of course, a model for Obamacare). Obama, despite his image, has sought to placate business and left Wall Street largely intact, and he is taking a far tougher line on foreign policy--one that reflects a traditional GOP "realpolitik" view and a dramatic ratcheting up of covert war-- than is generally acknowledged, even when it comes to China.


Romney, increasingly desperate to win over his base against the onslaught of "Not-Romneys," has allowed his rhetoric to grow more inflamed on the trail, including commitments to a balanced-budget amendment and partially voucherizing Medicare as well as eliminating Obamacare. But based on his history, if he gets the nomination he is unlikely to follow through fully on these overheated pre-primary pledges and do many things dramatically differently, either on the economy or foreign policy. The problems of slow growth, chronic deficits and an overextended military will inevitably lend themselves to similar solutions from either an Obama or a Romney administration.


Now Obama is trying his hand at management consulting, all by way of saying there's no reason to change horses in midstream after all folks.