By Staff
President Barack Obama struck a reassuring confident tone with his Feb. 24 budget speech to a joint session of Congress.
It is a confidence reminiscent of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Depression and places Obama in the pantheon with two other great television communicators, Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
It's refreshing to see a masterful communicator at work, like listening to the nuanced subtleties of an orchestra – especially after eight years of George W. Bush's tortured syntax and bombastic tone.
What makes Obama so effective is his ability to change tone, from the soaring oratory of his campaign to the roll-up-the-sleeves lowered expectations of his inaugural address.
In the first month of his presidency, Obama used his bully pulpit to set the stage for the severity of the challenges the United States to the point where people were becoming anxious.
What he did effectively before Congress was convey that he is not shrinking from the daunting challenges ahead.
If anything, he seems invigorated and has a vision to get him where he wants to lead the country.
In punchy, plain language, Obama made some valuable points, like when he distinguished between being angry at greedy bankers and the need to save the banking system itself.
"Those days are over," he said of corporate extravagance.
"I promise you – I get it," Obama said about the public's rage at bungled bailouts. "In a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment."
So far, Obama remains more personally popular than his stimulus prescription, which is why he is trying to move mountains early on and tackle all the big issues his predecessors pushed to the back burner.
Obama forges ahead with health care reform, which will make getting 61 votes for the stimulus bill seem a walk in the park, but that's where the big money is for the savings he needs to rein in the deficit.
Ditto for the Iraq war. He drew a line in the sand Friday to withdraw combat forces within 18 months to fulfill the defining promise of his presidential campaign.
"Let me say this as plainly as I can," he said. "By Aug. 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."
Thorny issues also include what to do about Detroit automakers and the impact alternative energy can have on the flatlined economy.
He seems fine with the fact it could render him a one-term president.
The Democratic-controlled House pushed through a $410 billion measure Feb. 25 that bristled with earmarks.
Obama policed lawmakers to keep earmarks from the stimulus bill, but made no such attempt here with the result that lawmakers from both parties larded it with porky pet projects – 8,570 earmarks at a cost of $7.7 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Our congressman, Fred Upton, voted yes. Go figure, since there were 159 Republicans opposed and only 16 for spending $32 billion more than last year.
According to a New York Times/CBS News poll released on the eve of his budget speech, 79 percent said Republicans should try harder to cooperate with Obama.
Just 17 percent thought the GOP should stick to its guns.
Republicans are widely perceived to be playing politics during a national crisis.
They sent out the supposed future of the party, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, to give the response.
Jindal made much of rejecting stimulus money, but it turns out to be a tiny fraction.
Unless their strategy was to offer up a lightweight who makes us miss Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Jindal didn't seem ready for prime time.