He needs to reach a broader audience and be much tougher with the rhetoric. He needs to paint the obstructionists in broader strokes. Ask if the american electorate wants to return to failed policies that he;s been trying to fix without the help of the jerks that caused them. Point blank. Debate them. Openly. On the steps of the capitol. Ask them why they weren't so worried about debt when they supported Bush and now are so keen on ruining the country by running the same deficits but helping the people instead of oilmen. Ask them. Get tough. Man...

Obama is wearing a tie that has diagonal lines in the European orientation (high side of stripe on wearer's left).

The man's obviously a Commie.

The damage being done to the country to plump the feathers of the reBPublicans feels disproportionately addressed . While the aristocrats on the potomac consider what to have before delivering their weighty narratives , equal time devoted to the presentation of reBPublican propaganda before actual matters are given their shrift . Gulf victims are the other half of supply side voo doo , known as drowning government in a bathtub . Casualties of forty years of supply side magicks are regulated as equal , from the comfort crony capitalism , to the success stories of yet another unindicted rePBublican engineered ponzi scheme . While it is important to maintain civilty it becomes progressivly more difficult as the rotting infrastructure of America comes apart for the sake of one tenth of one percent of the countries population . The all powerful mugwumps , needing the careful primping and fawning the elites from Nero to little boots have cosseted for them by endless parades of sychophants greedy to suck the life from American entrails to secure one sinecure to another .
Obama is certainly among the best and finest people to have taking the measure of these calamities . The pressure I feel in the need to choke off the excessive lies , dissembling , and misdirection would crush my urge to be polite .

where is Mitch McConnell? undisclosed location? hunting trip? dentist?

I cannot comprehend why Obama continues to believe (or hope?) that he can get any Republican support for ANYTHING. We wound up with an incredibly watered-down health reform bill as a result of this attempt to get a couple of Republican votes so the bills can be called "bi-partisan." As a result, we got NO public option, and the majority of the most important reforms don't take effect for 4 years. There is no "working with the Republicans," there are only strategies that can and should be used to disempower them. And Obama needs to go after the Blue Dog and conservative Democrats who are working against positive change as well. He should use a few pages out of Johnson's book on how to handle Dem party members. Instead, they decide to support the very people who fight them, like Blanche Lincoln. Arghhhhh!

New CNN poll shows some of Obama's message getting through:

68 percent of respondents want more regulation of the oil industry;

72 percent favor "Barack Obama's proposals to develop alternative sources of energy and reduce the amount of oil and other fossil fuels that are produced and used in this country";

69 percent believe such plans will increase jobs.

Keep in mind that in general people aren't happy but when it comes to specifics, there's majority approval for these concrete steps being taken or rrecommended:

"Please tell me whether you approve or disapprove of each of the following actions by the federal government. . . ."

"Creating a fund of billions of dollars to compensate workers and businesses that have been affected by the oil spill that would be paid by BP but administered by a neutral party"

Approve 82
Disapprove 18

"Increasing the amount of federal regulation of the oil industry in this country"

Approve 68
Disapprove 31

"Changing the law so there is no limit to the amount of money BP must pay"

Approve 63
Disapprove 36

"Suspending all new drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and other offshore sites for six months"

Approve 58
Disapprove 41

"Filing criminal charges against employees and executives at BP"

Approve 53
Disapprove 46

I'm fairly certain, however, that when next week's meeting on energy policy takes place, the president (and the rest of us) will find that Republicans are about as interested in serious problem-solving on this as they've been on every other issue of late -- which is to say, not at all.

I think that recently a lot of independents have swung to the Republican point of view: if the Democrats have the power, this is a time when "serious" policy is to do nothing before the 2010 election. On everything where Congressional Democrats have been supported by Obama, they have done more harm than good.

It is a serious virtue of our system that a dedicated minority in Congress can block the elected majority when the elected majority has lost its popular majority and looks set to lose the next election.

Nice words, but few of the people who most need to hear this message know that the President does a Saturday message, and none of them listen to it.

Will any of this message get into a channel that might reach people who aren't political junkies?
We know that the "balanced" media won't allow suggesting that one side is in the wrong, especially if that side is the GOP.

Republicans won't start cooperating until it's too painful for them to do otherwise, and they no longer see an upside in obstruction. A few frank words on a Saturday morning will just bounce off their scaly hides.

Be nice if the big meeting were public. That worked really well before, and the GOPB hated it.
Also, this $20B fund sounds like a good start, but the perps are only putting $5B a year into it, right? This might be mentioned more often because it sounds like a Lot Less of an imposition on BP than the full amount.

Wow, just when you thought he was a complete corporate shill. So, when do we close Guantanamo and restore habeas corpus? Talk to me then Mr. President. You'll get a lot more support!

All the complaints about not getting the message out really indicate [see above CNN poll] is that Obama has virtually no press reporting on his actions--unless they're unfortunately continuing some Bush policy. After all, the MSM and the blogs know all about these, so they just can fire up and fire off their in-hand responses.

But the fact is that -- like a teacher, I might add -- he has affected the public's understanding of our problems, despite the news/noise machines--even if, like most teachers, he'll go uncredited.

Does anyone other than political reporters inside the Beltway listen to this "weekly Presidential radio address"? When Reagan started doing them there might conceivably have been some 60-100 year-olds still in the habit of listening to such, but as of 2010 who exactly would "tune in"?

Cranky

He needs to reach a broader audience and be much tougher with the rhetoric. He needs to paint the obstructionists in broader strokes. Ask if the american electorate wants to return to failed policies that he;s been trying to fix without the help of the jerks that caused them. Point blank. Debate them. Openly. On the steps of the capitol. Ask them why they weren't so worried about debt when they supported Bush and now are so keen on ruining the country by running the same deficits but helping the people instead of oilmen. Ask them. Get tough. Man...

Yes Trollop, that's what Americans care most about - Guantanamo and habeous corpus. That's exactly what they holding out for.

President Obama faces two right-wing obstructionist blocs: the "of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations only" Republicans and the "of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations only" Blue Dog Democrats.

We've seen this right-wing "bipartisan" bloc block numerous attempts to give American workers and their families a Fair Deal, from real healthcare reform to what is happening today along the Gulf Coast.

We've seen this right-wing "bipartisan" bloc block any investigations into the crimes committed by Republicans during the Bush/Cheney years, both those at the top levels of the Bush/Cheney administration as well as all those below, both in government or private contractors, who were "just following orders."

We've seen this right-wing "bipartisan" bloc block our government providing assistance to our neediest citizens while calling for more tax cuts for the wealthiest, for abolition of the estate tax and for privatizing Social Security (essentially throwing our elderly citizens to the wolves on Wall Street).

So, I sympathize with President Obama and the herculean task he faces in trying to both deal with the horror left him and his administration by his predecessor in the White House and to deal with so many obstructionist, corporation-kissing right-wingers who don't give a damn for our country or for working American families.

And talk about "shakedowns": the right-wing politicians obstructing Obama and endangering our democracy are "shaking down" corporations and wealthy individuals for campaign contributions daily while the corporations and wealthy individuals are "shaking down" politicians, like those obstructing Obama, to get corporate-friendly, more-wealth-accruing legislation passed, while blocking all attempts to get more citizen-friendly legislation passed as well as any legislation increasing income taxes on the wealthiest to offset all the damage they've done to our country over the past three decades.

@jjim: All those poll numbers that show massive majorities of the public in favor of actions Obama has/wants to take with regards to energy policy are very nice. The problem is, 100% of oil companies surveyed said they don't like it, and they pay our senators and congresspersons. So tough shit.