The "American Jobs Act" may not favorably impress economic historians of the future, but President Obama's energetic defense of government as a positive force in society assuredly will be quoted by political historians as shades of Franklin Roosevelt.
Well done. Again, not so much in the economic components of the plan, which were both anticipated and lukewarm, but in the gauntlet thrown.
Tonight, Obama began his reelection campaign, aiming directly at the problem children, the Republican Party. That may sound like political par-for-the-course stuff, but for Obama it isn't. To me, he sounded rather done with the preposterous business of bipartisanship, at least with these particular boys and girls. No more. He aimed at the GOP's intransigence, its tedious hypocrisy, its do-nothingness and its deliberate defeatism. Obama cajoled and threatened. He essentially demanded all or nothing. He contrasted. He led.
And he wrapped it all in an inspirational vision -- the aforementioned reference to government as a powerfully positive force. Therein lies the choice -- not a referendum -- of 2012.