Obama Uses Levers of Power

President Obama’s political team is providing “a textbook example of how an incumbent can harness the power of the office to bolster the case for re-election,” the New York Times reports.

“Every president lives at the intersection of policy and politics, never more so than during a campaign season. Locked in a tight race with Mitt Romney, Mr. Obama and his team have been pulling every lever of the federal government within reach, announcing initiatives aimed at critical constituencies, dispatching cabinet secretaries to competitive areas, coordinating campaign events to match popular government actions and forestalling or even reversing other government decisions that could hurt the president’s chances of a second term.”