Seize the Moment, Mr. President

by Bill Kavanagh:  Howard Fineman, no critic of the Obama Administration, is taking a shot at sending the President an urgent message in his March 10 Newsweek piece, “A Turning Tide?” 

 The message is to wake up, Mr. President.  We are in worse shape than your bipartisan economic program accounts for.  Fineman is right on target.  The stimulus is too small.  Some banks need to be nationalized now, not after we pour another several hundred billion into them.  And the public’s deep and abiding fear and anger needs to be called upon, not wet down with damp towels.  As President, you need to tell us that we need to make sacrifices, you must give us some specifics to help ourselves, and also mobilize our political will to take more dramatic government action.  And you must do all this soon, before the good will you enjoy evaporates with the Spring air.

 Getting past the do-nothing Republican minority on more stimulus and bank nationalization will not be easy. To succeed, Mr. Obama, you need to energize the public, much in the way that Roosevelt appealed in Fireside Chats to the American people for pressure on Congress to pass New Deal legislation.  You need to show you can take action, dramatic action, and make it stick.  No, you don’t have Roosevelt’s sweeping majorities, but you will have to make do with what you have.

 Tim Geithner needs to either have a serious sit-down with you and start rolling out better and bolder plans— or be replaced.  Bill Maher is right, the man looks like he’s going to need a change of underwear at any moment, and he’s not saying anything specific when he appears before Congress.  Maybe a bad bank, maybe more mortgage assistance, maybe some more plans later, but none of it has an air of definitiveness. Either he gets over his attempts to channel Bob Rubin— and soon— or you must make a dramatic change. Hire someone from outside the Beltway, like Paul Krugman.  Say you must call on our own Nobel Laureate to leave academia and join government in this moment of crisis.

 You must know by now that the economic plans you’ve rolled out are only the lite version of what’s needed.  So you must get out in front and add to them immediately.  The rest of your plans can wait.  No one, save a few folks who’ve been living in a bubble these last few months, will mind if you say you’re putting all your attention on the economy now. 

 A vocal right-wing minority will object to more spending and to more government intrusion into the economy.  They'll keep calling you a socialist and attack you at every turn.  Engage their opposition and in so doing get the rest of us behind you.  Roosevelt said in 1936, “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.”

 Now is the time, Mr. President.  There will be no better tomorrow if you don’t seize the moment.

(This post is also available at Bill's Big Diamond Blog.)

Comments

[Libby]

Might I mention there was a poll that went with Fineman's article asking to grade Obama's first 50 days? I understand Instapundit launched a freep of this poll yesterday. Just for the fun of it, why don't we freep them back?

[DAMOZEL]

Bravo, bravo, Bill! So true. I hope Obama is listening, but after his recent dismissal of criticisms coming from "blogs," I am not sanguine.

He definitely needs to wake up from his trance and smell the worsening situation before he steps in it.

[flowerplough]

Or, maybe, Seize the Moment, Senator McCain?

"President Obama seems to be undergoing a strange metamorphosis. He's slowly turning into John McCain.

1) Last Thursday, Obama told a group of CEOs he would consider cutting corporate taxes. Candidate McCain was for a corporate tax cut.

2) On Friday, Obama seemed to channel McCain's famous campaign quote that "the fundamentals of the economy are sound." The exact Obama statement: "If we are keeping focused on all the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy, all the outstanding companies, workers, all the innovation, and dynamism in this country, then we're going to get through this."

3) Today the New York Times reports that Obama would be open to taxing employee healthcare benefits to help pay for healthcare reform. McCain proposed the same thing, along with a tax credit to assist workers in purchasing their own health insurance.

Can a capital gains tax cut be far behind?"

Who Really Won, Obama or McCain?
James Pethokoukis, USNews