President Barack Obama’s speeches have a familiar ring these days — no matter  if it’s guns, immigration or the budget.

Tout what he’s already done. Say the public’s in his corner. Demand Congress  do something. Lament Washington dysfunction. Lay out his own plan. Avoid  details. Urge voters to keep up the pressure. Warn it won’t be easy. Bask in the  applause.

It’s the fill-in-the-blank approach to selling a presidential  agenda: same template, just adjusted for the topic.

(Also  on POLITICO: Obama sequester plan already DOA)

But the White House is betting this particular formula will help push Obama’s  ideas through, against a resistant Republican House and a skittish Democratic  caucus in the Senate.

He struggled during most of his first term to balance competing interests,  focusing on the legislative deal-making inside Washington instead of selling his  vision beyond the Beltway. Obama has laid out a clear communications strategy to  kick off his second term — but without the kind of crisis-inducing deadline that  averted the fiscal cliff, his challenge is figuring out how to translate that  into actual action on the deeply controversial issues ahead.

The campaign-first, negotiate-second strategy worked when Obama pressured  Congress to extend the payroll tax cut in 2011, avert an interest rate hike on  student loans in 2012 and eliminate the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthier  families. But none were as politically fraught as overhauling immigration,  cutting entitlements or establishing new gun restrictions.

His remarks Tuesday on the need to avert the automatic, across-the-board  spending cuts known as the sequester underscored the extent to which his pitch  has become predictable, even formulaic. Just as he did on immigration last week  in Las Vegas and on gun control Monday in Minneapolis, Obama said he wants “sensible” reforms and a balanced approach that “the overwhelming majority of  the American people” support but Congress needs to get with the program.

And the reaction from Republican leaders, who are resigned to learning about  White House proposals in speeches rather than private talks, followed a script,  too.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/president-obamas-fill-in-the-...