The cafe's <a href="http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/09/election_sneak_preview/">Jon Taplin</a> is one of the few pundits sympathetic to the Democrats who hasn't already thrown in the towel for November--and I say good on him.  The defeatism makes me crazy.

Jon writes: (come the fall): "...it will be clear to all but the most crack-brained teabagger that the Republicans represent the plutocrats and the Democrats are looking out for the people."

I wish it were considerably clearer. 

See banking reform and its progress, or the lack thereof, as one notable example.  Or the outrageous exec compensation fiascos on Wall Street--there has been some showy rhetoric but no action to speak of so far. 

There is going to be resentment among some Obama voters about the individual mandate to purchase health insurance.  One can argue about whether or not that is justified or not, but I think it's just the reality.  It will feed into, and reinforce for some, the government-bashing agenda the Tea Party crowd and the Republicans are fomenting. 

I see a political as well as a policy need for an issue where the consequences of the differences between the parties' stances for the well-being of ordinary Americans, and our country's economic future, are much more readily apparent than with the HC legislation we are likely to get this time.  

Last night I saw the documentary "For the People: The Election of Barack Obama".  It held my interest, though I've seen better in that genre.  I was struck by footage of the President's early campaign comment addressing, he hoped, the issue of whether he had enough experience to make the run and become president. 

He quoted something Michelle had said to the effect that they were still "pretty normal".  He went on to talk about how they still had student loans they were paying off 2 or 3 years ago, to try to communicate the point about how they were not--not yet--out of touch with how ordinary people in this country live. 

I wonder if he and Michelle would, if asked today, agree that they are still "pretty normal".  They have been forced to live inside the bubble the President has said often he does not want to get lost in.

My feeling is that they *are* farther away from "normal".  The policy agenda the White House has chosen to pursue, along with its MO, is consistent with what could be happening if that is true.  There are obviously many other factors that could account for the Administration's actions to date. 

I for one am still hoping the President finds something like his inner FDR very soon, and well before the fall.

I am eager to see where this White House goes next on jobs in particular--whether, for example, it weighs in forcefully in support of something closer to the House bill, or even offers another, more ambitious proposal more along lines of the Economic Policy Institute's excellent <a href="http://www.epi.org/index.php/american_jobs/american_jobs_plan">American Jobs Plan</a>. 

At any point the White House and Congressional Democrats can simply say, as their justification for offering much more help than was reflected in what the Senate just passed, that although unemployment would be far, far worse absent the stimulus legislation last year (clearly true), there appears to be a consensus that the employment situation is not going to get much better any time soon, that this is an unacceptable cost for too many American families to bear, and that in any case we need to ramp up the kinds of investments in our infrastructure that are going to make possible more good-paying private sector jobs in the future.  This is all true and most of the public knows it. 

I am not holding my breath.  The warning signs, in the form of some fairly strong criticism by people initially sympathetic to this Administration, are there, if they are heeding them.  Steven Clemons has recently brought these previously private rumblings to the attention of a wider public, both here and at his site, The WashingtonNote.    

The President may be as outstanding a campaigner going forward as he was in 2008.  But he has more of a record, of both action and inaction on some issues, to defend. 

And he isn't the only one who will be campaigning.  There are a whole bunch of members of Congress who are going to need to make the case that what they've done so far merits re-electing them.  Most of those folks are not nearly in the league as the President when it comes to campaigning.  That makes it all the more imperative that they have several key, easily understandable and compelling issues to distinguish their record and commitments from that of their opponents.