http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/is_the_fighting_obama_back.htmlIs the fighting Obama back?
For President Obama"s supporters, watching his speech at a Milwaukee labor rally on Monday was old-fashioned fun from a leader who hasn't given them all that much fun in a while. To draw enough Democratic-leaning voters back into the electorate to stave off disaster, he'll have to stay in fighting form for the next two months.
Even his most controversial line served a mobilizing purpose. "They talk about me like a dog," Obama said, chuckling about the Republicans. "That's not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true." The reminder of all furniture and false charges thrown Obama's way by the G.O.P. (and by the farther reaches of the right) was a call for the cavalry of his own supporters. It was a way of saying: Are you going to let them get away with this?
And yes, there was substance, too. Obama's proposal for an infrastructure bank to rebuild the country was good policy, and the only shame is that he didn't offer it earlier. Even in anti-government times, building projects is popular because skeptical voters can see and touch what government is actually creating.
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And that's why the fighting Obama can't disappear but has to keep shouting, joking, laughing – and making his case relentlessly. My hunch is that this Obama not only has a chance to turn a substantial share of his own supporters back on, but also appeal to some of the independents his party needs to woo back. Middle-of-the-road voters vastly prefer a battling, engaged president to a distant figure who doesn't swipe back, even when he's being treated like a dog.By E.J. Dionne | September 7, 2010; 8:53 AM ET
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