Tales of the Prom-King Presidency.

Obama leaves top Senators on hold for twenty minutes, until someone else came on the line with a vague idea of what the conference call was about.

President Obama’s relations with Senate Democratic leaders are deteriorating along with his poll numbers.


With Obama’s approval ratings at record lows and the 2012 electoral map favoring Senate Republicans, the president and Senate Democrats are, in many ways, on divergent paths. Vulnerable Democrats from red states see Obama as impeding their chances of winning reelection, while the president often seems aloof to their concerns.

Obama, focused on winning a second term, has distanced himself from Congress altogether, at times not making the distinction between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
 
There have been recent flare-ups between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his deputies. This comes 13 months before the 2012 elections, when control of the Senate is up for grabs.


The proximate causes of friction can seem slight, such as a recent breach of protocol, which left Senate Democratic leaders grumbling.

Obama left his party’s top senators, who had assembled for a conference call, hanging on the phone for nearly 20 minutes before National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling came on the line with a seemingly vague notion of what the call was supposed to be about, Democratic sources said.

The White House and Reid’s office did not comment for this article.

Reid has been Obama’s most important ally in Congress, but the relationship has never been particularly affectionate, even though Reid was one of Obama’s first Senate colleagues to privately urge him to run for president.

Obama and Reid speak frequently on the phone, but the conversations can be terse. One Democratic source quipped that it’s often a contest to guess who will hang up on the other first. Reid, as it turns out, doesn’t have a habit of saying goodbye when he ends a call.

The White House has had to rely on Reid because, unlike former President Clinton, Obama has little appetite for regularly calling Democratic lawmakers.