There is usually one segment on every Rachel Maddow Show which contributes to the public discourse. Last night after interviewing Barney Frank, (who looked like he had just gone 15 rounds in the ring,) about the Wall Street Reform Bill, she spoke about President Obama's achievements to date. It was more than useful;it was a valuable reminder how much the man has accomplished against staggering odds.
In recent weeks, we have been treated to the Darkness at Noonan view he is a snake-bitten president. Or the mainstream Democratic view, he was the Black man hired to clean up the white frat boy's messes and worthy of enormous sympathy and even pity. And, of course, there is the flood of vile hate I receive via e-mails and messages from the Right.
Dr. Maddow quoted Teagan Goddard at "CQ Politics", "Not since FDR has a president done so much to transform this country." In a year and a half, the Great Reformer's achievements have been staggering but lost in the Beltway noise chamber, which manufactures imaginary issues, clashes and even events.
It's worth repeating some of Dr. Maddow's observations. Like the geek she is, she mentioned what I think is one of Obama's great contributions to date--the unprecedented commitment of billions to research in science and research and even more billions to alternative energy sources. I still believe Obama's speech at MIT is one of the most important references to his vision of the future. The $100 billion in the stimulus package to our nation's crumbling infrastructure was the biggest investment since Ike and the first such action in over twenty years. The health care reform finished the job set out over 60 years ago to make health care a right in this country. A job that thwarted several Presidents. Wall Street Reform will be the most important regulatory piece of legislation since the Great Depression. And we don't know yet the fate of the Energy Bill.
He concluded a nuclear arms reduction deal with the Soviet Union and launched a new global proliferation initiative to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorist--a perennial nightmare for strategic thinkers for the last 20 years.
He signed Hate Crime Laws that has languished for years in Congress and expanded the Civil Rights act through the Lily Ledbetter Law to award women equal pay for equal work. I would also give him some credit for pushing the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
He created a bipartisan Deficit Commission despite the opposition of the Republicans, who now proclaim themselves deficit hawks. He also passed Pay-Go requirements for government funding again without a single Republican vote.
All these accomplishments were enacted without any support from the opposition party. The opposition party now will not even extend unemployment benefits to 1.2 million Americans whose benefits have run out and not extend the necessary financing to keep states solvent so as to allow the continued employment of teachers, firemen and police.
So as we look toward the mid-terms, I think it's important that we get another Obama "Vision" speech where he synthesizes the meaning of all these achievements for the future direction of the country. There are shards here and there of how they fit together but so far we have not had the comprehensive view in one set speech. It's time for what Hillary Clinton called his "Whoop-De-Do" speech. The reason it's needed is because even Democrats are losing their focus in message control, allowing Republicans to creep back from the brink. And they need to start getting a laser vision for this November. The stakes are that high.
President Obama needs this speech as well to maintain and harness his political capital, which gets weakened by unexpected crises like the BP disaster. He lucked out with the appalling response by the Republicans and their full body embrace of the oil companies. But he can not bet on their continued ineptitude.
There is another fundamental reason it's time for Obama to present his vision for the future. The American people are battered physically, emotionally and financially after the last several years. All his significant reforms have not been translated at the grass-roots level into support for his vision.
Many of these changes affect small things in one's everyday life but the President doesn't get credit for them. A key example of this is his reform of student college loans and streamlining the process. As a personal example, this means $10,000 I would not have had access to in the past for my son's education. I am sure this is happening to millions across the country but since they do not watch the minutia of Beltway politics they do not connect the change with the President.
But President Obama needs to get the American people to buy into his vision of the future. He needs to translate the science and research components of his program away from the "green language" into a more futuristic language that taps into the American sense of progress and great accomplishments. He has to de-wonk how he talks about these issues to convey how visionary they are. At the same time he needs to spell out in understandable terms how the foundation for a new economy is being laid and why we can not sustain and should not want to continue the present.
And to some of us, he has to spell out the basic components he wants to come from the deficit Commission since some of its members have alarmed a number of observers. He must emphasize that Social Security will be strengthened and its life extended under any deficit reduction proposals. And he may have to touch the real Third Rail in politics future cuts to the military/ terrorist complex. Also his explanation of deficit reduction should be aimed at defanging the austerity hawks, which are beginning to dominate the public discussion and giving Republicans a talking point, when they themselves racked up $11 trillion of the deficit under their watch. A fact he might want to explain.
This speech should be timed to have maximum effect prior to the mid-term elections but not be seen overtly as an election year speech. The venue needs to be selected so that there can not be a Republican rebuttal. It is too late to hold it for the State of the Union Address where a heckler will win the media coverage anyway. It should be an address aimed at the general public and not simply the Democratic Party.
When? I would like to see it as soon as possible but Americans tend to go to sleep in August. Either it should be sometime in July or immediately around Labor Day. There should be a concerted effort to maximize media coverage and to win over key journalists to write seriously about it.
It's time President Obama use his natural eloquence for himself. We'll even allow him to use a teleprompter. And, let's thank Rachel Maddow for reminding us of all that has been accomplished in this short presidency.
ARE YOU FIRED UP! READY TO GO! Let the Great Reformer takes us to the break.
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