The Obama conundrum

27 January 2010 |permalink | email article

FDR and JFK each had a special way of connecting with, and inspiring the American people. President Obama, despite his popularity, cool but aloof rhetoric and effort to portray himself as a born-again populist, remains a political riddle.

That’s the defining challenge in Obama’s State of the Union address tonight, to reconnect with the country in a very personal way – to move past the mantra of “change” and look directly into tens of millions of homes to say things, after a mixed start in his first year, will be very different in Washington – that he will discard the terrible economic policies that favored big business and the very rich at the expense of the middle class and the poor. In short, the president must emerge as authentic. 

“Mr. Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose rhetoric, how every skillful, cannot always be trusted. He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won’t be able to close it.” Bob Herbert in his New York Times column.

Eugene Robinson, in a Washington Post column: “In the end, voters will respect Obama’s accomplishments, not his aspirations. They will reward his passion, not his polish. It’s fine for a president to tell Americans that he’s fighting on their behalf, as long as he remembers that what they really want is not such much for him to fight but to win.”

Out of touch, again

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested at his annual Sacramento Press Club address that California could pay Mexico to build and house 19,000 illegal inmates to save “$1 billion” from its bloated prison budget. His press flack told The Sacramento Bee that the Governor’s Office cannot say where the state would save $1 billion under the plan because it has no such plan. “I think you guys have covered him long enough to know he likes out-of-the-box, creative ideas. He doesn’t think any idea is too zany to at least debate.” The Terminator remains a bad Hollywood joke.

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