It's Your Turn, Mr. President--Obama In Osawatomie, Kansas

We have heard the caterwauling from the GOP candidates daily. But we have never heard them speak about what they consider is the common good or the public good. In fact, except for references to Ronald Reagan's speech on "The Shining City on the Hill, we have heard little from the GOP of their vision of what America in the 21st century stands for or is for that matter.

This morning's papers brought op-eds from Michael Gerson and Roger Cohen on how Obama is much more a formidable candidate and challenge for the Republicans than they think. The PPP/DKos poll came out with Obama's favorable rating at 49% and him beating Newt Gingrich by 50-42 and 8 undecided. The Pew poll found that voters were souring on Republicans as their primary debates continue. As pundits have written several times, if you are an economic determinist Obama would have no chance of winning re-election based on the unemployment numbers and the right track-wrong track polls. Republicans have warned their candidates about attacking the President personally, saying the American people just feel sorry for him but basically like him. Well, his personal approval rating is 70%, which is alot of money in the bank.

But today in Kansas, you got a real view of why the President is a formidable political leader. In the town where Theodore Roosevelt spoke about Americans getting a "fair deal, a square deal and equal opportunities to succeed", President Obama laid out as clearly as a President has in a long time a vision of an America bound by certain values. Quoting TR, he said, "We are all Americans. Our common interests are as broad as the continent."

President Obama reviewed the economic history of America from the days TR inveighed against the bankers, monopolies and Wall Street to today in what he called an "innovation economy". He reviewed recent history and noted that average American's basic incomes has fallen by 6% over the past two decades while the wealthiest have soared. He noted,"But for most Americans, the basic bargain that made this country great has eroded."

The previous recession and the crisis of 2008 "combined the breathtaking greed of a few with irresponsibility across the system. And it claimed jobs, homes, and the basic security of millions--innocent, hard-working Americans who had met their responsibilities, but were left holding the bag. This is the defining issue of our time."

He articulated the rationale for a free market economy with regulations as well as has been done recently and also reminded the audience of how America progressed with TR fighting for an 8-hour work day, against child labor ( a dig at Newt), insurance for the unemployed, the progressive income tax, aid to the elderly and the disabled. He noted that at the time of America's greatest growth the top marginal tax rates were 70 and 90% and not below 40% like under Clinton.

He again laid out the effects of the Bush tax cuts in terms of massive debts and the slowest job creation rate in 50 years. He chided those who wanted to return from those unregulated days when health insurance companies could increase their rates at will and mortgage companies were unregulated. The days, when "a financial sector where irresposibility and the lack of basic oversight nearly destroyed our entire economy." For this reason he threatened to veto any attempt to delay or defund the Consumer Bureau.

He noted that income inequality has grown to the same levels as the Great Depression and that this distorts our democracy as evidenced by the tremendous influence of money on the Hill. He also argued with those who advocating further de-regulation saying that America would not get into a "race to the bottom."

Here are some random quotes from the text:

"I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gts a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules."

"This country shouldn't be known for bad debts and phony profits. We should be known for creating and selling products all over the world that are stamped with three proud words," Made in America."

Talking about the wealthy paying their fair share of taxes," This isn't class warfare. This is about the nation's welfare."

"For the United States to thrive in an "innovation economy" we need to make education a national mission."

Throughout the speech, he cited many examples of both Democratic and Republican Presidents using the cooperation of the government and the private sector to further the advancement of the country. He cited Kansas-born Dwight Eisenhower and his efforts on the Interstate Highway System as a segue into a rift on the need to modernize the infrastructure, something he has proposed in his jobs bill but Republicans refuse now to support.

The President's speech was a welcome counter to all the detritus we have been hearing from the Republicans about de-regulation, lowering taxes and not funding infrastructure projects. It was a good rationale for his re-election. But it was more. It was a short education on the nature of our political economy and how the United States created the most prosperous economy in the world, a history that some politicians want to disown.

And with Republican resistance to extending the payroll tax cut, President Obama had a perfect opening to talk about fairness in our society. He got to talk about millionaires paying a lower rate than those earning $50,000 or billionaires who have managed to pay only 1% on their taxes.

It will be interesting whether this speech will be covered at all and how. Yes, it was clearly a shot across the bow of the republican contenders and the GOP congressional leadership. But I thought it was more. It was a useful civics lesson in the nature of the visible hands Adam Smith wrote about guiding a market economy and why such an economy prospers.

As I've written often here, the whole tenor of our politics since 2009 has been a jihad against the progressive era, a disease that has infected all of Republican politics. I guess the best antidote for this was the President laying out all the principles that guided American political thinking since the days when TR was seen as "a radical, a socialist and even a Communist." And as he noted TR's critics are still alive and well in Congress. This was a speech for patriotic sophisticates, a speech that didn't insult the intelligence of the audience and yet was very much in the mode of TR's notion of a "new nationalism."