Eugene Robinson: Outsider in Chief

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/outsider_in_chief_20100128/

Outsider in Chief

Posted on Jan 28, 2010

By Eugene Robinson


President Obama’s first State of the Union address didn’t signal a political shift to the left or the right. It sounded more like a shrewd attempt to move from the inside to the outside—to position himself alongside disaffected voters, peering through the windows of the den of iniquity called Washington and reacting with dismay at the depravity within.

In the course of a 70-minute speech, Obama slammed almost everybody in town. He even included a little self-deprecation and self-doubt—“I know there are many Americans who aren’t sure if they still believe we can change—or that I can deliver it.” But that followed a lengthy indictment of how Washington works, or doesn’t work. It is a tribute to Obama’s rhetorical gifts that the man at the center of our political system could position himself as an exasperated but hopeful outsider.

Unsurprisingly, the president called out the Republicans for being consistently obstructionist: “If the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town ... then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.”

But he also called out the Democrats: “I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills.”

He called out both parties at once, in a passage that was about reducing the deficit but could have applied to health care or just about any other issue: “Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time to try something new. Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt. Let’s meet our responsibility to the citizens who sent us here. Let’s try common sense. A novel concept.”

snip//

No, he won’t be able to appease the hard-core Tea Party crowd. But independent voters who are fed up with partisan gridlock heard the president invite Republicans to offer their ideas on health care, energy, education and other issues. I believe he may have succeeded at making it more difficult for Republicans to keep giving “no” as their all-purpose answer to anything the administration proposes. The president sounded reasonable and open; the opposition risks sounding truculent and Machiavellian.

Obama was at his most popular when he was seen as a different kind of politician, one who would speak harsh truths to friends as well as adversaries, one who offered not cynical calculation but unapologetic hope. In his State of the Union speech, he sought once again to sound the themes—and inhabit the persona—of his remarkable campaign. He’s been president for a year, but he sounded like an outsider again.

[BeyondGeography]

1. All true

K&R

[Jennicut]

2. Common sense...a novel concept.

Indeed. Dems are too willing to give in, Repubs too willing to obstruct.