OBAMA DEFIANT – AT 7:17 P.M. ET:  The question of the week, which we've reported here, is whether President Obama will choose to be Jack Kennedy or Jimmah Carter.  Will he recognize his errors and try, as Kennedy tried, to correct them.  Or will he go holy, holy, holy, as Jimmah did, pushing his purity all the way to defeat by Ronald Reagan. 

We look for signs.  So far, Jimmah seems to be winning.  The New York Times reports:

ELYRIA, Ohio — President Obama, striking a no-retreat, no-surrender posture in the wake of his party’s humiliating defeat in the Massachusetts Senate race this week, vowed Friday to press on with his expansive domestic agenda — including a health care overhaul and tough new restrictions on banks — even if it meant he had to “take my lumps” from political critics.

No, my friend, it isn't political critics from whom you're taking your lumps, it's the American people.  But Obama cannot fathom that "the masses" would turn against him. 

The president used the word “fight,” or some version of it, more than 20 times.

Churchill used it, too, as in, "We shall fight on the beaches..."  The difference is, Churchill meant it.

Mr. Obama vowed to “never stop fighting for policies that will help restore home values.” He promised that he was “not going to stop fighting to give our kids the best education possible.” He pledged he would not “stop fighting to give every American a fair shake,” to continue fighting for a new Consumer Protection Agency and for openness in government. And of course, Mr. Obama pledged to fight for jobs.

“So long as I have some breath in me, so long as I have the privilege of serving as your president, I will not stop fighting for you,” Mr. Obama said. “I will take my lumps. But I won’t stop fighting to bring back jobs here.”

Say what?  He's fighting for openness in government?  Like the way they put together health care "reform"?  He's fighting for education, the way he's caved in to the education unions?  He's fighting for jobs?  What jobs, other than those in government?

Mr. Obama’s new bellicose rhetoric comes as his advisers have concluded he must strike a more populist tone, to tap into the anger many Americans feel about bailouts on Wall Street while Main Street is suffering. At the same time, the White House is trying to frame the midterm elections on terms that will be favorable to Mr. Obama, by casting him as someone who will stand with the little guy — even if all those fighting words contrast with his image as a politician who cares about bringing people together.

That's the problem.  The president is always running for something, posturing, winning debate points.  It's the governing part he doesn't care for.

While here, Mr. Obama made a plea for the health care bill, which is in disarray now that Scott Brown, the Republican, has been elected senator in Massachusetts, depriving Democrats of the 60th vote they need to pass a sweeping overhaul.

Conceding that the plan had “hit a little bit of a buzz saw this week,” Mr. Obama acknowledged that the process “has been less than pretty” and that the measure was so big and unwieldy it looked like “a monstrosity,” creating fear and anxiety among ordinary Americans. But he made the case that passing the measure is an imperative.

“This is our best chance to do it,” the president said. “We can’t keep on putting this off.”

In the immortal words of the philosopher George Gobel, "Wait a gosh-darned minute."  Didn't Nancy Pelosi just say she didn't have the votes to pass the thing?  Didn't Chris Dodd recommend that the Dems take a timeout on health care?  And if the current bill is "creating fear and anxiety among ordinary Americans," why not revise it?  Who writes these speeches?

Mr. Obama, naturally, attacked Washington, the standard practice for politicians in trouble:

With all the problems he faces in the capital, he sounded especially happy to be let loose for a few hours.

“It’s just nice being out of Washington,” he said, adding, “I mean there are some nice people in Washington but it can drive you crazy.”

Guy, you asked for the job.  Don't blame Washington.

COMMENT:  Some of this reminded me of Jimmah Carter's "national malaise" speech, in which he attributed his woes to a great national malaise. 

The president is certainly not wrong on everything, any more than Carter was.  But, like Carter, he isn't very good at governing.  You can't just have a good cause.  Health-care reform, as Scott Brown said just yesterday, is a perfectly good cause.  You have to know how to execute it, and present it to the American people.  Until the president realizes his mistakes, he'll never correct them.  He will be Carter, not Kennedy.

January 22, 2010