--- description: Can the White House count votes? It doesn't look like it. As the election year heats up, Senators from Barack Obama's own party have been... title: Obama’s Democratic Problem image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Obama's Democratic Problem by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 20, 2014 2:56 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 20, 2014 2:56 PM CUT Can the White House count votes? It doesn’t look like it. As the election year heats up, Senators from Barack Obama’s own party have been responsible for blocking the confirmation of two key presidential nominations. DEBO ADEGBILE Obama’s choice to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division was voted down after seven Democratic Senators opposed the former NAACP lawyer for his role in efforts to successfully overturn the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a cop in 1981. VIVEK MURTHY The Surgeon General nominee faces stiff opposition from the National Rifle Association–and up to 10 Democratic Senators–over his support for an assault-weapons ban and universal background checks. No vote has been scheduled. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/31899/obamas-democratic-problem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/31899/obamas-democratic-problem/"},"headline":"Obama's Democratic Problem","datePublished":"2014-03-20T14:56:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:52:24.241Z","description":"Can the White House count votes? It doesn't look like it. As the election year heats up, Senators from Barack Obama's own party have been...","url":"https://time.com/31899/obamas-democratic-problem/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/31899/obamas-democratic-problem/","name":"Obama's Democratic Problem"}}]}] ```