Could it be that our President has not simply just woken up but actually planned it's role out for maximum political effect?
With Obama's Job speech to Congress and today his deficit reduction plan, it would be hard to argue that the President has decided to enter the debate in a more forceful way. He has definitely changed tactics. As has been noted by all of the more attuned pundits, this is the first time Obama's team has written the legislation he wants rather then allowing the Democrat members of Congress to write a watered down version that no one ends up liking. This is a very important change in tactics. You could say Obama is finally putting his own political capital on the line but the truth is, a President's political capital is always on the line when a D precedes any piece of legislation. He just allowed the Congressional Democrats to wither away most of the political capital he achieved by winning the election with the largest mandate in generations.
Perhaps I am just allowing my optimism to reappear but this may actually be a very smart political strategy that actually started with the debt ceiling crisis. At the time it was hard to imagine that the President would once again bargain away his most important bargaining chips before the negotiations even began while his base was screaming for him to take a stand for something and fight, fight, fight. But I believe it has been said many times that in war and politics you need to pick your battles carefully.
I think the President knew the debt ceiling debate would end in Congress and that he really had no chance of winning any concessions from the Republicans. But it could also be that last Spring before the mess really got going, he knew then that his hopes for bipartisanship had ended and it was time to play a little more hardball and expose Republicans for what they really are, obstructionists putting party before country. The media certainly were not going to do it and the Congressional Democrats have become immobilized by their own inability to unite around any real vision or even ideology. So the President has to do it but how?
Start by calling their bluff which is what he essentially did during the debt ceiling crisis by supposedly agreeing to more than the Republicans were asking for (we really don't know for a certainty what Obama offered Boehner but the media line was that is was significant and would not please his base one bit). The Republicans as if on cue rejected it and in doing so handed the President a trump card to use later when the real negotiations began with the new session of Congress. The debt ceiling crisis ended the only way it was going to end, in Congress, not the White House.
With that behind him he announced his plans to give his "Jobs" speech after Labor Day when Congress was back from vacation. Let them get an earful at home. He also ignored the taunts from the Republicans to do something now, don't wait and all of the other grandstanding they predictably threw at him. He held his ammo and waited to have the debate on his terms and his turf.
What we see now is the next step, we tried it your way (agreeing to more than they wanted knowing they would not bite) so now we are going to try it my way. Even though his Jobs Plan was designed to try and get Republican votes, his deficit reduction plan certainly was not.
He now has to take the argument to the American people that they have a clear choice, solve the problem with shared sacrifice from all or put all of the burden and pain on the middle class and poor.
I end by noting that in his speech today he was able to put things in simple lay language which I believe anyone could understand except of course the 30% or so who do not want to hear anything. "This is not class warfare, its math" was his best line and should be the slogan going forward.
Like I said I could be letting my optimism get the better of me but we might finally have the guy we wanted in the White House. For now I would say we should all support him in this fight and if he really does take it to the end and does not cave anymore and shows his willingness to fight for what is right and fair that we stand shoulder to shoulder with him. If I am right, this could be the change we have been waiting for.