The Ghosts of 1994 Loom for Obama and the Democrats

Everywhere I look, I see the ghosts of 1994.

There's the young Democratic president with an ambitious (overly so, some argue) agenda, seemingly intent on doing it all at once. Bill Clinton's initially charming peripatetic policy appetite quickly became a hallmark of his lack of focus. Obama and his supporters have thus far managed to frame comparisons with ambitious predecessors using Franklin Roosevelt rather than Clinton, but that could yet change. As with Clinton, Obama's agenda is topped by a major healthcare overhaul, the likes of which predecessors have attempted unsuccessfully.

The Democratic president faces a Republican Party thirsting for a return to power. Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is rallying the faithful while Newt Gingrich is an omnipresent face of the opposition, throwing bombs and new ideas in equal measure.

Gay issues are forcing themselves onto the agenda. Then it was gays in the military; now it's same-sex marriage and. . .gays in the military.

The president's wife is even getting drawn into a scandal involving cronyism and improper political largess. Then first lady Hillary Clinton weathered questions about what role she played in the White House Travel Office staff getting sacked in favor of political allies. "Travelgate," as it came to be known, was the first notable scandal for an administration that pledged new openness in government. Now, Republicans want to know whether Mrs. Obama's office had any role in the decision to fire Gerald Walpin, the inspector general at the Corporation for National and Community Service. Walpin was canned in part, according to reports, because of his investigation of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an Obama supporter and former NBA-er, over allegations of misused federal funds. (A White House official told the Associated Press that Mrs. Obama had no hand in the firing.)

One could go on with more mundane comparisons: Rahm Emanuel is a key figure on the White House staff. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have been called the nation's first black president. We know how this mix of characters and aspirations played out: the young Democrat laid low, Republicans ascendant. Haven't we seen this movie already? Is politics mimicking Hollywood: restarting the franchise with fresh faces but hitting on familiar themes?

Democrats can derive comfort from critical differences—and key similarities to 1994. Take, for example, Gingrich and Limbaugh. In 1994, Gingrich represented a new generation of Republican leadership that was not simply storming to power on a national stage but seizing it within the party. Newt, recall, shoved aside the genial (overly so in regard to Democrats, the young Turks thought) Bob Michel as leader of the House Republicans. Newt brought not only new Republicanism but also new ideas. And with the House class of 1994, he led the last (though it didn't seem so at the time) surge of the conservative wave that had first crested in 1980 with Ronald Reagan's presidential victory. In the intervening years, that conservatism has ebbed.

Now Gingrich and Limbaugh are familiar quantities. Limbaugh speaks for and to a minority out of step with most Americans. That Gingrich remains the most intellectually interesting Republican says as much about the leaders the GOP has produced in the past 15 years as it does about Newt himself. There seems no Gingrichian equivalent on the Republican leadership horizon now. Can you imagine John Boehner (another familiar face from those days) or Eric Cantor playing a Gingrich-like role as a political counterweight to a president? No.

And Obama has gone to school on Clinton's mistakes. He seems intent on not letting "gays in the military"-type issues derail and devour his agenda. He promised to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy but has made little visible effort to do so. And while he also promised, as a candidate, to work to repeal the odious Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents states from being forced to recognize one another's gay marriages, his Justice Department defended it in court last week. The simmering outrage among gay groups apparently prompted Obama last week to extend spousal benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Whether that assuages his party's base without irritating mainstream voters remains to be seen.

Michelle Obama, too, seems to have learned from Hillary Clinton. Like Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Obama is an accomplished professional, but she has managed to avoid the appearance of taking on a greater policy role than is traditional for a first lady.