A Turning Tide?
Obama still has the approval of the people, but the establishment is
beginning to mumble that the president may not have what it takes.
Howard Fineman
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Mar 10, 2009 | Updated: 8:37 a.m. ET Mar 10, 2009
Surfer that he is, President Obama should know a riptide when he's in
one. The center usually is the safest, most productive place in
politics, but perhaps not now, not in a once-in-a-century economic
crisis.
Swimming in the middle, he's denounced as a socialist by conservatives,
criticized as a polite accommodationist by government-is-the-answer
liberals, and increasingly, dismissed as being in over his head by
technocrats.
Luckily for Obama, the public still likes and trusts him, at least
judging by the latest polls, including
NEWSWEEK's. But, in ways
both large and small, what's left of the American establishment is
taking his measure and, with surprising swiftness, they are finding him
lacking.
They have some reasons to be concerned. I trace them to a central trait
of the president's character: he's not really an in-your-face guy. By
recent standards—and that includes Bill Clinton as well as George
Bush—Obama for the most part is seeking to govern from the left, looking
to solidify and rely on his own party more than woo Republicans. And yet
he is by temperament judicious, even judicial. He'd have made a fine
judge. But we don't need a judge. We need a blunt-spoken coach.
Obama may be mistaking motion for progress, calling signals for a game
plan. A busy, industrious overachiever, he likes to check off boxes on a
long to-do list. A genial, amenable guy, he likes to appeal to every
constituency, or at least not write off any. A beau ideal of Harvard
Law, he can't wait to tackle extra-credit answers on the exam.
But there is only one question on this great test of American fate: can
he lead us away from plunging into another Depression?
If the establishment still has power, it is a three-sided force,
churning from inside the Beltway, from Manhattan-based media and from
what remains of corporate America. Much of what they are saying is
contradictory, but all of it is focused on the president:
- The $787 billion stimulus, gargantuan as it was, was in fact
too small and not aimed clearly enough at only immediate
job-creation.
- The $275 billion home-mortgage-refinancing plan, assembled by
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is too complex and indirect.
- The president gave up the moral high ground on spending not
so much with the "stim" but with the $400 billion supplemental
spending bill, larded as it was with 9,000 earmarks.
- The administration is throwing good money after bad in at
least two cases—the sinkhole that is Citigroup (there are many
healthy banks) and General Motors (they deserve what they get).
- The failure to call for genuine sacrifice on the part of all
Americans, despite the rhetorical claim that everyone would have to
"give up" something.
- A willingness to give too much leeway to Congress to handle
crucial details, from the stim to the vague promise to "reform"
medical care without stating what costs could be cut.
- A 2010 budget that tries to do far too much, with way too
rosy predictions on future revenues and growth of the economy. This
led those who fear we are about to go over Niagara Falls to deride
Obama as a paddler who'd rather redesign the canoe.
- A treasury secretary who has been ridiculed on "Saturday
Night Live" and compared to Doogie Howser, Barney Fife and Macaulay
Culkin in "Home Alone"—and those are the nice ones.
- A seeming paralysis in the face of the banking crisis:
unwilling to nationalize banks, yet unable to figure out how to
handle toxic assets in another way—by, say, setting up a "bad bank"
catch basin.
- A seeming reluctance to seek punishing prosecutions of the
malefactors of the last 15 years—and even considering a plea bargain
for Bernie Madoff, the poster thief who stole from charities and
Nobel laureates and all the grandparents of Boca. Yes, prosecutors
are in charge, but the president is entitled—some would say
required—to demand harsh justice.
- The president, known for his eloquence and attention to
detail, seemingly unwilling or unable to patiently, carefully
explain how the world works—or more important, how it failed. Using
FDR's fireside chats as a model, Obama needs to explain the banking
system in laymen's terms. An ongoing seminar would be great.
- Obama is no socialist, but critics argue that now is not the
time for costly, upfront spending on social engineering in health
care, energy or education.
Other than all that, in the eyes of the big shots, he is doing
fine. The American people remain on his side, but he has to be careful
that the gathering judgment of the Bigs doesn't trickle down to the rest
of us.
