I know Mark Penn is well known Democratic political strategist, but I totally disagree with his suggestions for
bold action. The suggestions seem more timid to me.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-penn/strategy-corner-time-for_b_545132.html
The prediction that passage of health care followed by an impressive agenda of global nuclear and Wall Street regulatory reform would lift up the administration by showing aggressive leadership seems to be one of those strategies that looks good on paper but so far has not worked in practice.
President Obama's ratings remain below 50 percent in the Gallup tracking and in most other polls. The prophesied bump from health care never materialized, and the polls show most Americans still oppose the health care plan, believing it will increase, not decrease, the cost of their care.
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2. He should set up a bipartisan group to monitor the execution of the health care plan and propose fixes for problems that emerge. He should make this a part of the process now so that he has a way to make changes fast before any cost increases take root. He has to show flexibility in the face of public concern.
3. Financial reform should come after the midterms, not before. Having just spent hundreds of billions to get Wall Street back on its feet, now is not the time to have a messy fight that muddles the message of economic recovery. The political justification for tackling this today is that going after Wall Street is a highly popular move that could give the President and his party a much-needed boost. In reality, though, the only thing that will deliver a meaningful lift is a clear sense of an economic recovery and the new jobs that come with it. A messy fight right now only sends the opposite signal. It creates uncertainty in the markets which creates uncertainty in the economy. Reform has to be worked out -- but now is not the best time to do it.
4. Focus his tough rhetoric on Iran, not Israel. Look at the stakes here -- Israel is building houses. Iran is building nuclear bombs. Preventing Iran from pulling off the Mideast game-changer of nuclear weapons must be foreign policy objective number one. A nuclear Iran sets back regional peace and replaces it with regional escalation. This is where we need to see even more shuttle diplomacy -- finding creative ways to build a regional and global coalition that can be effective before it's too late -- and here too a chance to borrow from Kennedy, who drew bright lines in the sand when it came to nuclear threats.
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The president was elected to change things and I believe he can be big and yet avoid the traps of governing too far to the left. Health care followed by financial reform can be portrayed by the Republicans as too much government at a time that people are increasingly in an anti-government mood. He can still reverse the brewing electoral storm, but the best way to do it is to be the 21st Century reformer America elected and wants.
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