WAIT, WAIT, THERE'S A NEWS BULLETIN – OBAMA TO CHANGE – AT 9:02 A.M. ET:  The Politico is reporting this morning that change he can believe in is coming to the Obama strategy desk.  Try to contain your excitement:

President Barack Obama, after weeks of private talks, is putting the finishing touches on a new election-year strategy that replaces sweeping "change" with incremental reform, according to senior White House officials.

“Reform is the new change,” a senior aide told POLITICO.

Yeah, and sixty is the new fifty, and this is the new that.  Why is it that, in reading this story, I started humming, "There's No Business Like Show Business"?

The revamped 2010 plan focuses extensively on new reform efforts, starting with a “competitiveness” push, a call for tighter campaign finance laws and renewed attention to Obama’s open-government agenda.

I'm overwhelmed.  Wasn't this what we were supposed to get originally? 

The strategy involves heavy use of presidential statements and Obama's White House platform to position him as an agent of popular change, with less reliance on a complicated legislative agenda.

Huh?  You mean we haven't heard enough from Obama?  He's as overexposed as a Playboy centerfold.

Less reliance on a complicated legislative agenda?  Guess they're getting ready to lose Congress.

A close adviser said that Obama plans to increase his travel in the country, including mini-campaigns built around “a series of small but highly visible policy debates that clearly put the Democrats on the side of middle-class families, with lobbies for special interests on the other side.” Two likely targets: student-loan servicing organizations and banks.

Just a second here.  Isn't this what he's been doing?  This is one long campaign.

Finally, in an effort to reclaim the “change” mantle even though he now runs the government, Obama plans to emphasize his “transparency” agenda -- such measures as releasing White House visitor logs; posting specific projects funded by the stimulus bill; and signing an Open Government Directive requiring federal agencies to achieve milestones in transparency, participation, and collaboration.

I'm so excited.  Get me my pills. 

COMMENT:  This doesn't look like much, but, once again, we caution against underestimating Obama, especially the campaigning Obama. 

Some themes may well resonate, and appropriately so, with the American people.  Both parties concede that there are areas that cry out for reform, and that includes aspects of our health-insurance system.  So, Republicans must counter Obama with ideas of their own, not simply with rejection letters.

With Obama beginning this new crusade, it's a perfect time for the GOP to come out with a new Contract with America, and start to show the superiority of its approach.  If it doesn't, it will leave the field to the president.  Don't assume that poll results today will be reflected in election results in November.  Liberal Democrats don't sleep.

February 22, 2010