THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - January 16, 2014

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*-- Obama strategy: Rally outside groups to advance agenda --*
RALEIGH, N.C. - President Obama's plan Wednesday to boost U.S. manufacturing is part of a strategy to rally varied groups to back his fiscal and social policies, an aide said.

Obama is expected to announce "a new public-private effort" at North Carolina State University at Raleigh around 1 p.m., the White House said.

The effort is intended to produce "the kind of well-paying jobs that sustain a growing middle class," Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in an email titled "Year of Action."

As the email title suggests, Obama's announcement will not be a one-shot deal, Pfeiffer said.

It's part of a stream of decisions and events intended to create new jobs and opportunities for the middle class during a time of a recalcitrant Congress and a constrained budget, Pfeiffer said.

Obama intends to use his "convening authority" to bring together the private and non-profit sectors to move ahead on his agenda when Congress won't, the adviser said in the email.

"He will be looking for areas of bipartisan cooperation, but he won't be waiting on Congress to act," Pfeiffer said. "Instead, the president will use his executive authority, both his pen and his phone, to work with anyone to get things done -- whether they be leaders in business, education, Congress, states or local communities who want to get things done on behalf of the American people."

Obama's North Carolina State announcement is to follow a tour of a Vacon USA plant in nearby Durham that uses advanced manufacturing to make variable-speed AC drives, or frequency converters, that control the speed of electric motors to maximize energy efficiency, the White House said.

Advanced manufacturing uses innovative technology to improve products or processes.

"It's a perfect example of the kind of public-private partnership that can really make a difference in growing our economy faster and creating the kinds of good-paying jobs that help people get ahead," Obama said of the Vacon plant before holding a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

As part of the strategy, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will hold a summit Thursday with more than 100 college and university presidents and leaders from non-profits, foundations, state governments and businesses, the White House said.

The college and university presidents are expected to promise to increase their enrollment of low-income students and ensure they graduate -- commitments intended to increase the number of students who "graduate from college with the skills they need to succeed," Pfeiffer said in his email.

Later this month, the administration plans to sponsor a session for corporations that agree to hire the long-term unemployed.

"These are the kinds of efforts that take the challenges we face head on," Pfeiffer said.

But some groups say the initiatives don't always create the results they promise.

Chris Caine, president and chief executive of Washington consulting firm Mercator XXI LLC, who has worked on similar initiatives with Democratic and Republican administrations, told the Washington Post he saw such public-private events as a "20-80 proposition."

"Twenty percent of the time something's going to happen, which has meaningful impacts on the economy and American life," he said. "Eighty percent of the time these convening sessions are initiatives run out of the integration of the White House policy and political shops and end up being a mere daily sound bite. After all, we have a 365-day electoral calendar that never stops."

The practice of bringing outside groups together to support presidential agendas dates back more than 100 years to Theodore Roosevelt, who held White House conferences promoting conservation and other matters, the Post said.

President Ronald Reagan used a public-private approach to update workplace safety reporting methods, George W. Bush established an energy-efficiency program the same way, and Bill Clinton used the approach to create voluntary electronic commerce standards, the newspaper said.

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