Obama faces internal party division

After grand support from fellow Democrats for the stimulus package, President Barack Obama now faces an uphill climb when looking down the road at his future legislative wish list.

While the stimulus package was passed with grand support from his own party, internal divisions are now poised to put a kink in the plans for health care reform, educational assistance, and a new energy policy. But how could such divisions be present after such a show of political strength less than one month ago? It is quite easy to see that many in Congress do not see these programs as being "dire," and do not associate them with the same sense of urgency as saving the economy.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said "When your house is on fire, you don't stop to think about which room to put out first. You call the fire department to put out the whole house at one. Otherwise, by the time you are done saving the living room, the rest of your house is in ashes."

This statement shows the true political/governing philosophy of the Obama administration. There is no "one solution" to fix the economy, and Obama sees many of these programs as being linked to economic and social prosperity. Some of his critics state that he is over-reaching, and has too much on his plate at once. However, laying out ambitious policy goals has never stopped a president from trying.

This will be a true test of whether the administration has power over their own party. One such example of the simmering internal division: "One proposal would overhaul the federal student loan program to guarantee yearly increases in the Pell Grant program. That idea enjoys broad Democratic support. But to pay for the Pell Grant expansion, Obama would end federal support for private lending. And one of the major corporate providers of student loans is NelNet, a company based in Lincoln, Neb., the home state of Sen. Ben Nelson, a moderate Democrat who balked at the stimulus package and teamed up with three moderate Republicans to cut $100 billion from the final bill."

With pending troubles within his own party, and facing a tough uphill climb in respect to his legislative ambitions,

1. Can President Obama demand party support for these policies? Is such an action even possible (consider using the heavy hand of the presidency as leverage)?
2. Should Democratic leaders be ready to make concessions on these proposals and pass a bill that does half the job, or hold their ground until the first version garners enough support?
3. Is there anything that House or Senate leaders can do to protect their party from harsh internal divisions?
4. Will Democrats not in favor of supporting such action realize the bigger picture, or do the job of a delegate and protect their individual constituencies first?