Frank Rich: TIme for the Big Dog to Bite Back

[Doctor_J]

That spread (in the polls) is the Democrats’ dread “enthusiasm gap.” And since that gap can’t be bridged in two months by new government programs or divine intervention for the nearly one in six Americans who are un- or underemployed, what could give the Democrats even a slender reed of hope? If there’s any plausible answer, it can be drawn from the single poll finding that is most devastating for Obama, the question (as worded by The Washington Post/ABC News) of whether “he understands the problems of people like you.” There his numbers really have imploded. When he arrived in office, 72 percent answered Yes and 24 percent No. As of last week, Yes had fallen to 50 and No had doubled to 48.

That a former community organizer and insurgent presidential candidate from a rocky middle-class background could be branded an out-of-touch elitist is not entirely the fault of his critics. Obama has perhaps never recovered from handing his administration’s plum economic jobs to Robert Rubin protégés with dirty hands from the bubble — Lawrence Summers, a deregulation advocate from the Clinton administration, and Timothy Geithner, an indulgent regulator at the New York Fed. Their presence has helped Obama’s more unscrupulous adversaries get away with the lie that his White House, not President Bush’s, created TARP. Indeed, such is the Obama administration’s identification with the tarnished Wall Street culture that even Michael Bloomberg mistakenly identified Geithner, a longtime public servant who never worked at an investment bank, as a Goldman Sachs alumnus at a public event in New York last month.

The White House’s not-on-C-Span deal-making with the health care industry behemoths only cemented the administration’s corporatist image, as did Obama’s meandering path to what still looks like a loophole-ridden compromise on financial regulatory reform. This is why even many Democrats have become lukewarm in their conviction that their president “understands the problems of people like you.”

For Obama to make Americans believe he does understand their problems and close the enthusiasm gap, he cannot merely make changes of campaign style. Sporadic photo ops in shirtsleeves or factory settings persuade no one; a few terrific speeches can’t always ride to the rescue. Nor would there be much point in firing Summers and Geithner — a political nonstarter anyway, now that it’s been opportunistically proposed by the G.O.P. leader John Boehner (his one good idea). Certainly Obama can add powerful new hands who might actually fight to protect ordinary Americans from the sharks; the star consumer advocate, Elizabeth Warren, should have been front and center, even in a Senate confirmation battle, long ago. But in the short term between now and Election Day, Obama may have the most to gain by sharpening his attack on those “powerful interests” who liken him to a dog. A top dog bites back (with a smile).

Amen. Keep bringing it

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/opinion/12rich.html?_r=1&ref=frankrich

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Frank Rich has become an excellent writer...

[KoKo]

2. K&R...it's an excellent read. Invoking FDR would be positive for Obama

and help motivate Dems.

[Doctor_J]

3. It would help rally Dems, and the end could only be two possible outcomes

1. Boner and the teabaggers back down, or

2. It pushes the conflict between real Americans and Teabaggers to a head, and we resolve it.

Win/win

[Demeter]

4. Frankly, I Don't See Any Way Out for Obama

He consistently chose to ignore his base, his advisors, and reality.

He doesn't even give much lip service to any of those three.

If Obama immediately fired the economics team, I might believe he was waking up and getting serious. But instead, he appointed Goolsbee!

And his dancing around, trying NOT to appoint Elizabeth Warren despite universal acclaim and demands for her, is clownish and pathetic. And it's been going on for a year, now.

It's really sad that any President is such a failure. But so many in a row, that's just self-destructive.

[KoKo]

5. I think it's up to his VOTERS to Choose FOR HIM...how he moves...

and there's enough "Push Back" growing that he must be feeling some heat from those he promised so much to that believed what he promised.

We have to hope that he "WAKES UP" and starts to ENGAGE! There are signs of it...but we don't yet know if it's real or faked.

I still have hopes he will understand WHY he is PRESIDENT. People CAN CHANGE when the times are DIRE...and I hope that Obama has the RIGHT STUFF to SEE that trying to deal with Republicans is a Losing Battle.

I would have hoped that our "Escaped Impeachment Presiden...Bill Clinton" would have warned Obama about this and certainly Jimmy Carter would have tried to reach his ear about how Repugs go after Dems and traash and ruin their Presidencies.

Either Obama didn't listen (figuring he was a NEW MAN ...with a MANDATE and EXCEPTION to the RULE of former DEM PRESIDENTS...or there's something else going on with him.

I have to believe he TRIED HIS BEST with the REPUGS and lost and was too IDEALISTIC to understand from Inauguration that what he was attempting with the Repugs would go down in flames in his first year of Presidency. He was too innocent..or was it calculated.

I really don't know. BUT...he CAN MOVE! If he wants to...If he wants to...It's not too late..he still has a chance if he IS THE PERSON WE THOUGHT WE ELECTED..that is. :shrug:

[yurbud]

6. it would be a great surprise if instead of taking that new regulatory job, she got Summers or

Geithner's.

and those guys got new jobs as valet parking attendants.

[Demeter]

7. I Don't Think They Let the Inmates Run The Parking Concessions

[The Wizard]

8. It's too late for Obama

He gave the base the middle finger and ceded Congress to the Republicans. They may not impeach him, but he's chosen to dance with the devil who hates him instead of those who put him in office. Howard Dean should primary him. It might be our only hope.

[yurbud]

9. that didn't go well for Dems in 80, 68, or ever that I know of.