A Republican friend called to complain that President Obama seems to be flying here, there and everywhere as if on a continuing campaign. He wishes President Obama would stay home and save the taxpayers the cost of operating that very large airplane.
I told him that as far as I am concerned, the President can stay in the air all the time as long as he keeps addressing or attempting to address our nation's very real problems. The economy has had three consecutive months of real growth (3.2% for the last quarter). Unemployment is down (only stayed above 10% for two months unlike Reagan who had 10 consecutive months of 10% unemployment or higher). New Home sales are up. The stimulus package is working. Most importantly, the regulatory arms of the US Government are working again. The FDA is working, the SEC is working, FEMA is working, NHTSA is working. No one is trying to dismantle government these days. Bobby Jindal of LA is asking for more help from the FED not less. Speaking of the Gulf, this morning there was a news report that federal regulators did nothing in 2004 when they were told by BP that the safeguards built in to their deep water wells might not work. Nobody from the Bush administration asked, “why?”
The saddest thing continues to be the Republican insistence on bringing Obama down by sticking to their strategy of denying him any success whatsoever. They were opposed to Wall Street reform until their own polls said "you have got to be kidding," and then they couldn't turn around fast enough. Government is supposed to work when elected officials do what is best for the country, not what the fickle weathervane of public opinion tells them is the "safe" thing to do. Governing is hard. If an elected official doesn't understand that and is not willing to ignore the polls and exert the necessary intellectual and personal energy to do the job, they should get out.
