Obama’s Last Chance?

President Obama better connect this time.
 
His much-hyped economic speech next week may be his last chance.
 
For all his strengths, Obama has one great failing: He hasn’t been able to forge an emotional connection with the American people since the election.
 
He did it during the campaign by fulfilling a yearning for hope, change and a new tone in Washington.
 
How’s that working out?
 
Well, just this week, White House press spokesman Jay Carney said: “The president hopes that members of Congress of both parties, having returned from their August recess, will come back imbued with the spirit of bipartisan compromise….”
 
The next day, Speaker Boehner told the President he couldn’t address Congress the day he wanted to. That, according to historians, has never happened before to a President.
 
So now Obama will be trying to regain the ground he lost – political and policy-wise – in the debt-ceiling battle this summer.
 
As you would expect from the cool, cerebral, Mr. Spock-like President, the focus will be on facts and issues.
 
He has three choices:

1. Propose a big stimulus package, which he knows the Republican House would reject. But the American people may not buy that.

2.      Offer up a menu of job-creating ideas, like targeted tax cuts, infrastructure improvements, investments in certain industries. But even the list sounds boring.

3.      Challenge the Republicans on deficit reduction. Spell out the $4.2 trillion “Grand Bargain” that he and Speaker Boehner almost agreed on, point out how everybody from billionaires to Medicare recipients would sacrifice and dare the Republicans not to pass it.
 
He’ll probably do No. 2. I’d go with No. 3. Show some fight.
 
And some emotion.
 
What sustained Bill Clinton, for all his failings, was his ability to (famously) feel our pain. Obama, instead, tries to move our minds.
 
His political situation – and the country’s economic situation – demand more.
 
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Gary Pearce

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Obama’s Last Chance?

President Obama better connect this time.
 
His much-hyped economic speech next week may be his last chance.
 
For all his strengths, Obama has one great failing: He hasn’t been able to forge an emotional connection with the American people since the election.
 
He did it during the campaign by fulfilling a yearning for hope, change and a new tone in Washington.
 
How’s that working out?
 
Well, just this week, White House press spokesman Jay Carney said: “The president hopes that members of Congress of both parties, having returned from their August recess, will come back imbued with the spirit of bipartisan compromise….”
 
The next day, Speaker Boehner told the President he couldn’t address Congress the day he wanted to. That, according to historians, has never happened before to a President.
 
So now Obama will be trying to regain the ground he lost – political and policy-wise – in the debt-ceiling battle this summer.
 
As you would expect from the cool, cerebral, Mr. Spock-like President, the focus will be on facts and issues.
 
He has three choices:

1. Propose a big stimulus package, which he knows the Republican House would reject. But the American people may not buy that.

2.      Offer up a menu of job-creating ideas, like targeted tax cuts, infrastructure improvements, investments in certain industries. But even the list sounds boring.

3.      Challenge the Republicans on deficit reduction. Spell out the $4.2 trillion “Grand Bargain” that he and Speaker Boehner almost agreed on, point out how everybody from billionaires to Medicare recipients would sacrifice and dare the Republicans not to pass it.
 
He’ll probably do No. 2. I’d go with No. 3. Show some fight.
 
And some emotion.
 
What sustained Bill Clinton, for all his failings, was his ability to (famously) feel our pain. Obama, instead, tries to move our minds.
 
His political situation – and the country’s economic situation – demand more.
 
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Gary Pearce

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