These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush. America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
[. . .] It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country. We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great - a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight. [Emphasis added]
The excerpt above is from my favorite speech by President Obama, his 2008 Democratic Convention speech. I like the speech so much that I have embedded the video and ask that you all watch it again. It is also an important document for understanding what we Democrats need as a party and what the nation needs from its leaders—a clear-eyed, full-throated explication and exhortation for Democratic values.
I believe this is imperative not just because it will, in my view, help the president win reelection—a critical goal for all of us—it is also imperative because the nation must be presented a choice, a critical choice, of how we meet the unprecedented challenges we now face. The president has, in my view, not always made the best choices in terms of policies, particularly on the economy. Perhaps the choices were constrained by certain political realities. Unfortunately, these choices were not presented as made as a result of unwise constraints placed on the president's vision by the Congress. Instead, they were presented as the president's choices. The time has come for the president and Democrats to present what they think should be done to face our problems. And if the Republicans block the Democrats and the president from doing what they believe the country needs, then the president must go to the country and present the choice. He must say THIS is what we need to do. The other party disagrees. You, the American people, must make the choice.
Now, it is quite possible that what the president believes is the right policy to address our grave problems is not necessarily what I think are the right policies. But that's not important. What is important is that the president present HIS vision. I'm sure it will be preferable to me than what the Republicans will offer. I also believe it will be preferred by most Americans and the president will win reelection.
It is possible that the president can win reelection without presenting his views as a contrast to that of the Republicans. The president can try, and indeed may succeed, in presenting himself as the "adult in the room," presiding over squabbling Republicans and Democrats in the Congress. He can make his reelection theme one where he presents the desire for compromise and consensus—to again present the notion that he will "change the way things are done in Washington, DC."
But such a victory will be pyrrhic. And bad. Yes, bad—for the party, the president and most importantly, the country. Because a reelected President Obama who wins with the mandate to be "the grownup in the room," is a reelected president with no mandate to MAKE policy. Instead, he would become the mediator-in-chief.
The nation cannot afford a presidential term of mediation between policy visions. The nation needs and wants, in my view, a policy vision to guide us through the deepest economic crisis we have faced since the Great Depression. Yes, the Third Way and DC Beltway types can produce "studies" that will say the country want to address "deficits" or wants "compromise" or any number of Beltway buzzwords that they want to use to convince us that the country does not agree with Democratic values. I don't believe them.
I do not claim that most Americans are for a particular policy prescription. I do claim they are for particular results—results that reflect Democratic values.
In order to produce these desired results, the president must prostelytize for the policies he believes will produce those results. No, I do not expect much good to be done in terms of policy with this Congress. I think the moment is best described as a holding action in terms of policy.
But it cannot and should not be a holding moment for describing what needs to be done in the second term of the Obama administration. The Fierce Urgency of Now applies to commencing the political and policy debate about what the country needs, even if that decision is not made by the voters until November 2012.
For the good of the nation, we need a return of Barack Obama, the partisan—the one who ran the brilliant general election campaign of 2008. We need that Barack Obama, not just to win the election, but to save the country.