"amnesia"? Stupidity would be the correct word.

Obama is good at words. It's action that gives him problems.

I don't believe this Firebagger bullshit you sometimes see posted here - that Obama is simply this corporatist who wants the oligarchy to succeed at the expense of everyone else. But he definitely got nailed by his own elitist instincts. Wanting the best & brightest to shape policy is fine if those same people didn't help create the mess in the first place. But we already know enough about Geithner, Summers and Emanuel to know how contaminated they are. Obama's presidency is on the line here. He bears ultimate responsibility for letting cold-blooded plutocrats hijack his presidency. If he's going to redeem himself, he better give more speeches like the one yesterday. Again, it's too late to change November but it's not too late to change history's verdict.

If Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and rest of the leadership rally behind the President and provide the matching action that the White House needs... THEN... this November might not be so dismal.

He's too vague and professorial: "economic philosophy that they have been peddling for most of the last decade".

It is "GOP thalidomide economics" -- short term relief, long term distortions.

The Bully pulpit is the only way this guy is going to get his message out. The MSM will be backing the GOP throughout this whole cycle with the doom/gloom pool numbers. None of what they say will deal with the substance of the reasons why people are pissed and who actually brought us to this morass. This country is FUBAR

"It's hard to say whether voters are even willing to listen anymore, but the more Obama reaches the public with speeches like this one, the better the Dems' odds in November."

—Steve Benen 8:30 AM Permalink

They will listen if they are exposed to the message. Sadly the media buried Obama's speech after it was aired.

Did you listen to Rick Petty Face on CNN? He was full of unemployment charts and similar stuff. Then did you listen to Rachel and Keith and the rest on MSNBC? Me neither. MSNBC takes every important news event off. They have this giant library of really important must see prison films.

Too little, too late.

The size of the stimulus shows that they are not serious.

It's just to distract the base from the Catfood Commission.

And I thought the Bush administration was cynical.

@TAYLOR: time to get out of the bubble man. seriously. you are as clueless as you claim the Dems are when it comes to voters.

Oh, for God's sake do you really want Obama to be out there blasting away everytime you see him...can he have no more in his arsenal? Or do you mean you just KNOW that if he's not ranting and "fired up" he can't be passionate about the job he looks at every damn day? The carping nitpickers are becoming beyond annoying (BLAIR nailed it about the left)...if DEMS lose this fall there will be a combination of BLAME to go around and plenty will reside in media/blogosphere as much as with elected officials and administration...But, let's just keep eating our own!!!

I like to see him out there too, but he has been governing. It would have been nice if the didn't let health care debate get out of hand last summer, but they were still assuming atleast some of the GOP cared about the country. Unfortunately if you respond to every bit of nonsense, you'll never get anything done. And he has done an amazing amount.

HCRA will do more to lower business costs and help ordinary people than any tax cut. It's not perfect, but it's a good start. So it has to demonized.

The stimulus kept us from going over the cliff, so republicans ask "what cliff", and ignore it's tax cut provisions.

And the left pouts because it wants more. We got him elected after all.

Right now the meme that the stimulus "grew gov't" and "didn't create jobs" is out there and gaining steam. Don't whine that it should have been bigger, actively show how it has work and get everyone clamoring for more. We have to want it.

I don't find Obama to be "professorial" at all in tis sort of situation. He is professorial when answering questions at a press conference (and where did those go?) or at the health care summit. He speaks in standard English, using big words to describe complete thoughts. (Off the top of his head, at length, and no teleprompter!) But when speechifying I think he takes on the tone and a bit of the accent and simple wording of some black blue collar guy he's picturing in his head in an effort to be folksy, with maybe a bit of black preacher as well. All from cultures he was not raised in and was never even around until after college. He simplifies and dumbs down his thoughts. It may fool some people, but I find it very inauthentic. I really do want him to succeed, and I always wish I was an advisor who could tell him to just cut it out.

And he always goes vague and sands off the corners of whatever he's saying. I never feel like he's made a clear case for his side in this sort of situation, and he never leaves a clear sound bite that will cut through the blah blah for the majority of people who aren't really paying attention to much else.

Probably the only thing most people heard was "They treat me like a dog." No they don't. They treat him like the cliche of how some ignorant people used to think it was OK to treat a dog.

By the way, you can't "relitigate" the past until you've litigated it in the first place.

Right ON Dancer! And golack TOO! The man is PRESIDENT! He has a JOB TO DO! You want to help? Back away from the keyboard and get OUT there! The Dems have sat back, been lambasted and what do they do in the election cycle? Run from Obama while at the same time asking him to give speeches like THIS one. WTF?

Problems with your idea

1 - The MSM barely covered the speech. Mostly it just summed up the speech rather than actually showing it. The people who got face time were the Republicans and Blue-Dog Dems who don't agree with the Presidents ideas.

2 - Virtually no Democrat in Congress will pick up on or repeat any of this rhetoric. Certainly no Democrats who will show up on the Sunday shows. Those will continue to be dominated by Blue-Dogs.

The 'Bully Pulpit' only works if there is a support mechanism behind it that amplifies and repeats the message. Obama does not nor has he ever really had one.

Yes, it's a nice start. An awfully late start, but it's good to see *something*.

The media tries to dictate the theme of every thing that goes on in politics. They are owned and operated by corp which are mostly republican. They did not give this speech any play, just started analyzing and critizing with the same old talking heads and pundits giving their "expert advice " I think President Obama should continue on the theme he wants to get across to the people.The people will deceide in November.The media only has as much power as the people gives them. Go Obama!

I'm with Saint Zak. The American voters are infantile. Instant gratification is all they care about. They have no short term memory, let alone long term memory (as if two years were a long time ago).

Nice speech, but needs to be backed up by bold proposals. $50 billion for infrastructure? Not so much. $500 billion would have turned some heads and the repubs would be crying no louder than they are currently. Put out a big number and dare repubs to oppose it. If they cry about deficits refer them to Cheney and frame it as a needed investment for economic growth.

It's time to start picking some fights.

Hopefully, Obama has learned that the campaign never ends. You can't flip a switch in September and hope for a comeback. It can still be done but will require 2x the energy to make up for lost ground.

"The carping nitpickers are becoming beyond annoying (BLAIR nailed it about the left)"

Don't know who you are talking about, but Blair is a POS WarPig.

Hilarious: "America used to have the best infrastructure in the world, and we can have the best infrastructure in the world again!!!!

Jesus. When did a president's job become pep rally leader.