Good article in Politico (which is hard these days. The site definitely seems a little hell bent on tripping Obama up.)
What I have been touting for a while now is the lack of leadership coming out of the white house. It seems he must have read my blog b/c now we can see, since January, an Obama most willing to lead the pack.
"Democrats believe the Obama of the past week is what Americans want. They particularly think it could convince skeptical independents that Democrats can govern and that Obama is steadfast leader they hoped for. They’re also confident moving into the debate on regulating Wall Street because they believe it unites them and divides Republicans."
It is true. People want a leader. The good thing about Obama is that he's smart too. He just needs to show his passion for this country and people will follow.
There was one quote that burns me a little and it comes from a former Bush speech writer.
"He (Obama) had a powerful and effective week in rallying his base, which is useful, but he still faces the fundamental problems that his first year decline led to, which is he’s polarizing, he failed to get any Republican support and he’s lost independents.”
I find it hilarious to hear that Obama is polarizing. While the guy quoted above has an agenda, this viewpoint is not uncommon.
To the contrary, Obama has been willing to work with repubs. The fundemental problem is that repubs want their bill (and only their bill) to be passed and anything short of that causes them to vote no. (They also made a calculation long ago to oppose health care. No matter what came out of committe, they were hell bent on voting no.) So when I see a quote like the one above I really have to ask whether this guy is in touch with reality.
With the political winds at Obama's back, he should swing for the fences. Anything less would be a waste.
