"Renaissance Thinking About the Issues of Our Day"
"This has been a ghastly 12 months for President Barack Obama. As he prepares to deliver his first State of the Union address, none of the fair promises of his November 2008 victory has been fulfilled. The question now being asked, very properly, is whether he can recover in the next nine months, rescuing his Democratic party from catastrophic Senate and House losses in the mid-term elections. Even more importantly, will it be possible for him to proceed to win a second term for himself in 2012? The tasks are Herculean, though they might not have proved daunting for either of Mr Obama's most distinguished 20th century Democratic presidential predecessors, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Mr Obama could benefit from studying these earlier Democratic party administrations, so much more deft, feisty and innovative than his own. The proposition, commonly heard, that America's political and economic problems are infinitely more serious today betrays a woeful ignorance of the tumultuous 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Indeed, those able to recall the days when Roosevelt and Truman suffered obloquy and disdain comparable to and sometimes greater than what is now being meted out to Mr Obama know that neither ever capitulated to harsh criticism. It will soon be clear whether Mr Obama has the political skill, the fleetness of foot and the self-confidence to learn from his accomplished predecessors.
Does Mr Obama, in short, have the intelligence and the will to change course now, to show he is neither overwhelmed nor disheartened by his all-too-obvious failures and is in fact able to learn and profit from them? While there is no need for him to acknowledge the tactical and strategic errors he has made since entering the Oval Office - it has never been a presidential habit to admit fallibility - he must realise that his willingness to change course, doing so dramatically and expeditiously, will determine whether he survives as an effective leader."
Let’s cut to the chase. What would I like to say to the president tonight? Who are you and what have you done with the Barack Obama we elected?