"Obama Needs to Reset His Presidency"

I don't post very often on national issues. I thought, however, that an opinion piece by Ted Van Dyk in the July 17 Wall Street Journal on the topic, "Obama Needs to 'Reset' His Presidency" was particularly useful, and I wanted to pass it along to my readers. Mr. Van Dyk was Vice President Hubert Humphrey's assistant in the Johnson White House and active in national Democratic politics over 40 years. He is the author of "Heroes, Hacks and Fools," (University of Washington Press, 2008).

Mr. Van Dyk suggests in his article that President Obama should take a time out. He says that "our economic distress is deeper than we thought, and thus your health-care and energy initiatives are in danger of stalling out. You could use a reset button for domestic policy." Mr. Van Dyk then continues at some length as to how issues facing President Obama aren't similar to those of other presidents facing major challenges and, therefore, he should seek to solve them in a principled, measured way. Permit me to quote from Mr. Van Dyk the adjustments he believes President Obama should make.

"Cut back both your proposals and expectations. You made promises about jobs that would be "created and saved" by the stimulus package. Those promises have not held up. You continue to engage in hyperbole by claiming that your health-care and energy plans will save tax dollars. The Congressional Budget Office analysis indicates otherwise. It's time to re-examine these initiatives. Could your health plan be scaled back to catastrophic coverage for all--badly needed by most families, but quite affordable if deductibles are set at the right levels? Should the Rube Goldbergian cap-and-trade proposals be replaced with a simple carbon tax, with proceeds to be allocated to alternative-fuels development?

The evolving health and cap-and-trade bills are loaded with costly provisions designed to gain support from congressional leaders and special-interest constituencies. In short, they have become an expensive mess. This legislation will not clear Congress by the August recess, as you have requested, and could be stalled for the remainder of 2009. Settle for incremental change: Do not press Democratic legislators to vote for something they fear will destroy
them in 2010.

Talk less and pick your spots. You are outdoing even former Presidents' Johnson and Clinton with your daily speeches in the capital and around the country. Applause and adulation are gratifying. But the more you talk, the less weight your words will hold. Let voters see you at your desk, conferring with serious people about serious matters. When you do choose to talk, people will understand that it's important and they should listen.

Conform your 2009 politics to your 2008 statements. During your campaign, you called for bipartisanship and bridge-building. You promised to reduce the influence of single-issue and single-interest groups in the policy process. Yet, in your public statements, you keep using President Bush as a scapegoat.

You have ceded content of your principal proposals to Democratic congressional leaders who in large part have yielded to special-interest constituencies and excluded Republican leaders from policy formulation. This certainly was the case with the stimulus plan. It has been the case with health and energy legislation, with the notable exception of Senator Max Baucus's attempt in the Senate Finance Committee to develop genuinely bipartisan legislation.

You have an enormous reservoir of goodwill among Americans of all persuasions. They want you to succeed. Level with them and trim your proposals to what is practical in the current environment.

You had things right in 2008. Take a timeout. Get back to yourself. Make a fresh start."

Coming Soon. . .
1). Amidst all the problems, California is a wonderful place to live.
2). Why doesn't Fresno have an "adopt-a-median" landscaping program?

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