Populist Mantle Versus Passion Gap

29 September 2011 |permalink | email article

The question is whether President Obama will campaign as a centrist, a liberal or as FDR in 1932.  Many journalists believe his clearest path to victory is to study what the president did during the Great Depression by putting millions of people back to work. It seems clear that Obama, after stumbling for months, has recovered his groove, He’s seized a populist mantle in promoting a $450 billion jobs bill and the White House expects the Republican controlled House to support a few elements of the package: extension of the cut in the payroll tax and the expansion of unemployment insurance. He’s not ruled out accepting this piecemeal approach. The danger is he may slide back to a compromise mode, something FDR never did.

Chris Christie came face-to-face with the passion gap that Republicans face when he spoke at the Reagan Library Tuesday night. To great applause a woman in the audience said “I mean this with all by heart. We can’t wait another four years, to 2016. I really implore you as a citizen of this country to please, sir, to reconsider. We need you. Your country needs you to run.” “I feel your passion which what you say it, and it touches me, Christie replied. 

What About Palin?

She told Fox News’ On the Record with Greta Van Susteren Tuesday she’s concerned jumping into the 2012 president race will muffle her message. “Is the title worth it? She asked rhetorically. Does the title shackle a person? Are they someone like me who’s maverick? Do I go rogue and I call it like I see it and I don’t mind stirring it up in order to get people to think and debate aggressively. Is a title and a campaign too shackle-y? For my two cents plain, Palin’s a legend in her own mind – politically, she’s yesterday’s news.

Quotable

“Republicans are still out there yearning for somebody who’s really going to satisfy them on all fronts.” – Huff Post’s Howard Fineman talking with MSNBC’s Laurence O’Donnell with results of a GOP power outsiders poll showing growing dissatisfaction among voters for the GOP 2012 field.

“Whatever rift existed before – and there was – that’s gone.” – Former New York Mayor Edward I. Koch who used the forum of a special Congressional election to broadcast his criticism of President Obama’s Israel policy.

“He inherited a crashing economy and two wars. Yet he kept us moving forward. We must keep fighting for him so he can keep fighting for us.” DreamWorks studio executive Jeffrey Katzenberg hailing Obama at a major fundraising event in West Hollywood.

 

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