WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010 MICHAEL GERSON


Obama’s economic wandering


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fter a first year mainly focused on health reform, and a bleak December 2009 employment


report, the Obama administration was finally ready to talk, in Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s words, about “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Strategist David Axelrod admitted the Obama team was recalibrating to focus on the economy. President Obama said, “We have to continue to work every single day to get our economy moving again. For most Americans, and for me, that means jobs.”


Six months later, following addi- tional health-reform drama, arcane financial reform, a national immigra- tion debate and a sluggish oil spill re- sponse, 67 percent of Americans said the president had not focused enough on job creation. July’s jobs report was again dreary, with 181,000 discouraged workers dropping out of the labor force entire- ly. Advice for the president from Democratic strategists and nervous Democratic legislators was nearly uniform: Focus on jobs. The presi- dent proceeded to enter the Manhat- tan mosque controversy, mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katri- na, and address the nation on Iraq and Afghanistan. During an inter- view with Brian Williams last week- end, Obama made news commenting on his religious faith, on Glenn Beck’s rally in Washington and on the “birther” movement. This is a president who has lost control of his public message. It wan- ders unleashed from park to alley, stopping to sniff every cable news story along the way. Some blame a po- litical and communications team that is reactive and undisciplined. But there is another possibility. Perhaps the president doesn’t talk about job creation because he doesn’t have much to say.


Obama has tried a number of eco- nomic messages. If I hadn’t spent a lot of money, you would be even more miserable than you currently are hasn’t worked very well, especially since the administration predicted that its stimulus spending would keep unemployment around 8 per- cent. Don’t blame me, blame Bush is negative and backward-looking. Just give me a little more time and things will work out seems both passive and plaintive. Obama would do another round of stimulus spending if he could — the primary Democratic ap- proach to job creation. But having spent beyond public patience, this isn’t a realistic option. Now, two months before the mid- term elections, the president is again trying to pivot to job creation, calling attention to some small-business tax reductions. But his message is about to be overwhelmed. The primary economic debate be-


tween now and the election will con- cern the tax reductions of 2001 and 2003 — President Bush’s economic stimulus — which are due to expire on Dec. 31 unless Congress acts. Oba- ma has proposed to eliminate the portion of that stimulus that goes to wealthier taxpayers. Republicans op- pose any tax increases in a feeble economy. The result is a high-stakes game of chicken, with just a few pos- sible outcomes. First, Democrats might break a


Senate filibuster by persuading some Republicans to support an extension of Bush’s tax cuts for the middle class but not the wealthy. Momentum, however, runs in the other direction. Republicans are unlikely to give the president a legislative victory imme- diately before the midterms, partic- ularly one that increases taxes. And two Democratic senators, Kent Con- rad of North Dakota and Evan Bayh of Indiana, have expressed support for at least a temporary extension of all the Bush tax cuts. Second, Democrats and Republi- cans could agree to a temporary ex- tension, deferring a decision on tax increases until the economy strength- ens. But this would be a major loss for the administration — the abandon- ment of a long-standing promise to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Third, there could be a standoff, re- sulting in the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts — for the middle class as well as the wealthy — thus kicking an economy that is struggling to rise. The problem for Obama is this:


Even his best outcome in this political struggle would have little to do with job creation. An economist might ar- gue that the resources used to extend tax reductions for the wealthy would have quicker stimulative effect if giv- en instead to the poor, who save a smaller share of each dollar they re- ceive. But Obama’s tax increase on the rich would be used to reduce the deficit, resulting in a net contraction of economic activity. Tax increases to pay for past spending do not stim- ulate the economy. So Democrats are left with a stark choice between soaking the rich and stimulating the economy. And Oba- ma’s message of jobs, jobs, jobs, once again, is bound to stray. michaelgerson@washpost.com


KATHLEEN PARKER No one’s messiah D up.”


Beck’s history of alcoholism and addic- tion is familiar to any who follow him. He has made no secret of his past and is quick to make fun of himself. As he once said: “You can get rich making fun of me. I know. I’ve made a lot of money making fun of me.”


Self-mockery — and cash — seems to come easily to him. Any cursory search of Beck quotes also


reveals the language of the addict: “It is still morning in America. It just happens to be kind of a head-pounding, hung-over, vomiting-for-four-hours kind of morning in America.” “I have not heard people in the Repub- lican Party yet admit that they have a prob- lem.” “You know, we all have our inner de- mons. I, for one — I can’t speak for you, but I’m on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show.” Indeed. After the hangover comes ad- mission of the addiction, followed by sur- render to a higher power and acknowledg- ment that one is always fallen. These may be random quotes, but they


can’t be considered isolated or out of con- text. For Beck, addiction has been a defin- ing part of his life, and recovery is a process inseparable from the Glenn Beck Program. His emotional, public breakdowns are rep- licated in AA meetings in towns and cities every day. Taking others along for the ride, a.k.a.


evangelism, is also part of the cure. The healed often cannot remain healed with- out helping others find their way. Beck, who vaulted from radio host to political- televangelist, now has taken another step in his ascendancy — to national crusader for faith, hope and charity. It’s an easy sell. Meanwhile, Beck has built a movement framed by two ideas that


RUTH MARCUS The church of Glenn Beck


cal fireworks. The news reports accurate- ly likened the atmosphere to that of a church picnic — and no reporter wants to write about a church picnic.


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But then I realized: The abundance of religiosity was the news. Beck is offering — and whatever the precise crowd count on Saturday, a whole lot of people seemed to be buying — a new form of fusion poli- tics, melding the anti-government, anti- spending, anti-tax fervor of the Tea Party with the faith-based agenda of the reli- gious right. “America today begins to turn back to


God,” Beck proclaimed. On stage, he had assembled a “Black Robe Regiment” of re- ligious leaders, modeled on a group of colonist-backing pastors during the Revo- lutionary War. For decades, the conservative move- ment has struggled to manage tensions between fiscal and social conservatives. There is an overlap between the two camps, but the libertarian urges of the fis- cal conservatives also tend to rub against the antiabortion and, more recently, anti- gay-rights positions of the social conser- vatives. The successful Republican politi- cian — Ronald Reagan, most prominently — is the one who manages to minimize that friction and get the two wings to work in unison. The Tea Partyers are not synonymous with the Republican Party, but they have reflected the fiscal conservative strain of


left the Glenn Beck rally worried that I didn’t have much of a story. It was all revival meeting, no politi-


the GOP. It has not been clear whether, or how, the Tea Party would seek to accom- modate the religious aspect of the conser- vative movement. Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally illustrat- ed one potential route. His is not Moral Majority religious conservatism, with op- position to abortion as a litmus test of po- litical bona fides. Indeed, a few weeks back, Beck expressed the heretical view that same-sex marriage was not a threat to the country. Rather than fire-and-brimstone, Beck


offered up more of a soft-focus religion, divorced from specific points of doctrine. This was new-agey spirituality as self- help, fortified by a hefty dose of patriot- ism garbed in religious imagery. There is every reason to think this is the thinnest veneer of tolerance: Fresh from the rally, Beck was back to dismissing President Obama’s religious views. “Peo- ple aren’t recognizing his version of Chris- tianity,” Beck told Fox News’ Chris Wal- lace on Sunday. This would be insulting from any leader, but it is particularly au- dacious coming from Beck, whose own faith — Mormonism — is viewed as a cult by some Christian leaders. But among those in Saturday’s throng, the linkage between faith and libertarian- leaning politics seemed obvious. “We’ve lost our morality. The country is headed in the wrong direction by remov- ing God from everything,” said Bob Erdt, a retired Ford engineer from Michigan, ex- plaining his participation. Then, Erdt shifted seamlessly to the fiscal side.


“We’re spending way too much money that we don’t have,” he said. “Anybody with any common sense or honor or mo- rality knows we can’t be spending like this and not bringing the country to ruin.” Asked what had inspired her to fly to the capital from Colorado, Andrea Car- rasco started with God and ended with light bulbs.


She came, Carrasco said, to “ask God to restore the country. Our freedom is lost. My freedoms are lost. To be able to preach anywhere we want, to have God in our schools, to drive any kind of car we want and if I want to drive a gas guzzler, I can, if I want to eat a lot of sugar and salt, and I shouldn’t be forced to buy medical care.” Carrasco paused, but only briefly. “To be able to burn the kind of light bulb I want,” she added. “The list goes on.” It’s too early to know whether Beck’s


bridge between social and fiscal conserva- tism is sturdy enough to withstand the conflicting pulls. Already there is edgi- ness among traditional leaders of the reli- gious right about Beck’s bona fides. Another question is whether the link-


age between the two wings risks limiting the Tea Party’s appeal to independent vot- ers worried about the deficit but at risk of being turned off by overt religiosity or hard-line social conservatism. Beck’s brand of messianic politics feels creepy to me — but it is clearly compelling to thousands. Make that hundreds of thousands. This was one church picnic worth covering.


ruthmarcus@washpost.com


POST PARTISAN Excerpts from The Post’s opinion blog, updated daily at washingtonpost.com/postpartisan


DAVID IGNATIUS


Frustrations of the peace process


What’s the first item on the agenda for the


long-awaited, face-to-face peace talks be- tween the Israelis and Palestinians that begin Thursday? It’s just getting the parties to agree to a second meeting in several weeks. The Obama administration, which came to


office with such brash optimism about achieving a breakthrough on the Palestinian problem, is reckoning this week with the frustrating realities that have obstructed a settlement for more than 40 years: Every lit- tle issue is linked to a bigger issue; agreement on the parts of a deal is impossible unless you can see the shape of the whole package. Israel’s moratorium on building new set- tlements is a case in point: The administra- tion demanded the moratorium early last year as a way to boost Arab confidence. But it has become a proxy for the larger question of


what borders a future Palestinian state will have. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanya- hu will probably agree to extend the morato- rium past Sept. 26 only under a formula that allows Israel to keep building in the big set- tlement blocks that bound Jerusalem. Every- one (including the Palestinian negotiators) understands that these blocks, although out- side Israel’s 1967 borders, will become part of the Jewish state in any final deal. The demarcation of borders, in theory, is the easiest of the “final status” issues to re- solve, so the Obama administration plans to start there.


But the borders issue is a proxy for the still


larger question of how Israel will maintain security with a Palestinian state next door. Is- rael might agree to return 95 percent of the pre-1967 territory if it knew it could have a military presence in the Jordan River Valley, or airspace over the West Bank, or a demilita- rized Palestine or . . . Pretty soon, this starting point begins to look like a dead end. On Thursday, the Israelis and Palestinians sit down with Secretary of State Hillary Clin-


ton — and, hopefully, agree to meet again in about two weeks somewhere in the Middle East. Then, in theory, negotiators begin work- ing on specific sub-issues, such as water, transportation, airspace and even Internet bandwidth.


When the parties reach an impasse, the Obama administration plans to step in with “bridging proposals.” As momentum acceler- ates and the key sticking points become clear, Obama plans to gather negotiators at a rural location near Washington for a final push. But first they have to get past the impasse of Sept. 26, which has become at once the alpha and the omega. What reason would Netanyahu have for making concessions that would boost the po- litical standing of Obama, a man many Is- raelis still regard with deep suspicion? “Israel’s interest is in having a strong America,” says Michael Oren, Israel’s ambas- sador to Washington. And you can’t have a strong America with a weak president. This may be Obama’s secret weapon, the fact that he needs a win so badly. Another American failure would be scary — especially for Israel.


espite all the words spilled in evalu- ating Glenn Beck’s tent-less revival last weekend, the real meaning may


have been hiding in plain sight. Beck’s “Restoring Honor” gathering on


the Mall was right out of the Alcoholics Anonymous playbook. It was a 12-step pro- gram distilled to a few key words, all lifted from a prayer delivered from the Lincoln Memorial: healing, recovery and restora- tion. Saturday’s Beckapalooza was yet an- other step in Beck’s own personal journey of recovery. He may as well have greeted the crowd of his fellow disaffected with: “Hi. My name is Glenn, and I’m messed


KLMNO


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A17 HAROLD MEYERSON


Labor rows against an angry tide


ALEX BRANDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS Glenn Beck bows his head in prayer at his “Restoring Honor” rally on Saturday.


are unassailable: God and country. Throw in some Mom and apple pie, and you’ve got a picnic of patriotism and worship. Wait, did somebody say . . . Mom??? Sister Sarah, come on down! Yes, Mother Superior made an appear- ance. Sarah Palin, whom Beck sainted a few months ago during an interview in which he declared her one of the few peo- ple who can save America, came to the Mall not to praise politics but to honor our troops. Palin is the mother of a soldier, after all,


and God bless her, and him, and all those who have served. Unassailable. As Palin said, whatever else you might say about her, she did raise a combat soldier. “You can’t take that away from me.” Who you? Oh, that’s right, The Media.


Never mind that Beck is one of the richest members of the media. Or that Palin has banked millions primarily because The Media can’t get enough of her. But what’s an exorcism without a demon? And who better to cast into the nether regions than the guys lugging camera lights? Covering all his bases, Beck invoked the


ghost of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who stood in the same spot 47 years ago to deliver his most famous speech. Where King had a dream, Beck has a nightmare: “It seems as darkness begins to grow again, faith is in short supply.” Really? When did that happen? Because it seems that people talk about God all the time these days. Even during the heyday of Billy Graham, most Americans could get through 16 or so waking hours without feeling compelled to declare where they stood on the deity.


And the darkness? Creeping commu- nism brought to us by President you-know- who. Conspiracy theories and paranoia are not unfamiliar to those who have wrestled the demon alcohol. Like other successful revivalists — and giving the devil his due — Beck is right about many things. Tens of thousands joined him in Washington and watch him each night on television for a reason. But he also is messianic and betrays the grandi- osity of the addict. Let’s hope Glenn gets well soon. kathleenparker@washpost.com


role in this year’s midterm elections: keeping the white working class from flooding into the Republican column. “When our canvassers call on our members on their doorsteps, they hear Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly in the background,” says Dan Heck, who heads a massive union-sponsored pro- gram in Ohio devoted to persuading its members to vote this November for candidates who would mightily dis- please Beck and O’Reilly. Heck’s organization, Working America, was created by the national AFL-CIO in 2004 to reach out to white, working-class voters in key swing states such as Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. “Right now, we talk to 25,000 people every week,” says Ka- ren Nussbaum, the program’s national director, “and we’ll knock on a million doors in the next two months. The people we talk to are the volatile 40 percent in the middle of the elector- ate. They’re angry, and they’re not sure who to blame or what to do about it.”


O “A number of these folks are evan-


gelicals, some are conservatives,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “We still manage to find common ground with them, talking about end- ing tax breaks for the rich and penaliz- ing companies that offshore jobs.” Poll after poll makes clear that it is working-class whites who have most decisively turned away from President Obama. With only 7 percent of the pri- vate sector unionized, the AFL-CIO now reaches out beyond its members to preach the gospel of economic pro- gressivism — public investment in in- frastructure, reviving manufacturing, clipping Wall Street’s wings — to swing voters who, 30 or 40 years ago, would have been card-carrying union members. Working America can claim some notable successes over the past six years. Its members, recruited on their doorsteps by the group’s canvassers, voted heavily for Obama in 2008 — one reason he handily won Ohio and Pennsylvania, the two states with the most Working America members. But the Great Recession has made labor’s task decidedly more difficult this year. In an April speech at Harvard’s Ken- nedy School of Government, Trumka affirmed that “working people are right to be mad at what has happened to our economy and our country.” Our political leaders, he continued, need to validate that anger — and remedy its causes — if they are to keep that an- ger from turning into racial, religious and homophobic hatred. The roots of that anger, and of the recession, lie in our creation of what Trumka termed a “low-wage, high consumption” econo- my in which the manufacturing of things has been supplanted by the manufacture of debt. Working America’s canvassers hear


that anger every day — sometimes di- rected at Wall Street, sometimes at the president, immigrants and other right-wing bogeymen. They grapple with it by highlighting job-creation programs (improving local roads) and anti-offshoring legislation that Demo- crats have backed and Republicans opposed. Next week, they’ll start cam- paigning for actual candidates, using these criteria. Their message is surely the right


one. The question is whether congres- sional Democrats and Obama in par- ticular actually measure up to progressive-populist claims that labor makes for them. That they have passed landmark progressive legisla- tion, and mitigated the scope of the re- cession, is beyond question. Ham- pered by Republican opposition, how- ever, they clearly haven’t done enough to turn the economy around. Nor has Obama done what Trumka and his organization’s canvassers do on a daily basis: validate Main Street America’s anger. That doesn’t mean that Obama needs to sound angry himself, God (and David Axelrod) for- bid. But labor is on to something that seems to have eluded the White House: If Obama and the Democrats are to have a fighting chance against Beck, O’Reilly and the Republicans, they need to acknowledge how our power elites have betrayed Main Street America, and how Main Street America is right to be enraged. Nearly 80 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt did just that — railing at the “money changers” of Wall Street who had de- filed the nation, even as he crafted programs that created jobs and reg- ulated finance. The Becks and O’Reil- lys of his day — chiefly, radio dema- gogue Father Coughlin — railed at the New Deal’s secularists and Jews sub- verting the nation, but Roosevelt, with an ascendant labor movement going door to door for him, beat them back. Like Roosevelt, Obama has created jobs (if nowhere near enough) and regulated finance, but the empathic anger seems beyond his capacities or inclinations. That may be one of the biggest obstacles confronting labor’s canvassers this fall. meyersonh@washpost.com


f all the groups in the Demo- cratic orbit, it is labor that has assumed the most demanding


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