President Barack Obama's speech on the debt ceiling crisis was an attempt to reassert himself as a player in the negotiations surrounding proposals to raise the debt ceiling but also cut spending by a similar amount.
The speech, which was heavily laden with partisan campaign rhetoric, was also an attempt to salvage his crumbling presidency and his prospects for reelection in 2012.
The problem that Obama has with his base is daunting. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests that support for Obama among African Americans and liberals have begun to collapse. The latest Gallup Poll places Obama's approval rating at just 43 percent. Obama polls very weak against most potential Republican candidates.
While congressional Republicans and even George W. Bush come in for their share of the blame for the current economic malaise, an increasing number of Americans when asked the question are you better off now than you were on Jan. 20, 2009, answer in the negative. A similar question, when asked of the voters by Ronald Reagan in 1980 proved to be devastating for then President Jimmy Carter.
The reason for public discontent with Obama is based on jobs and the economy. Liberals blame Obama for what they perceive as "caving" to Republicans and the tea party and not spending enough on stimulus or mandating an immediate government run health care system in the Obamacare bill. The rest of the country believes that the president is essentially clueless about what is needed to jump start the economy and create new jobs.
The prospects of all of this turning around by November 2012 are pretty grim. The Great Recession has become as persistent as the Great Depression, which it might become if the president allows the debt ceiling deadline to pass and places the country into default. President Obama, so calm and self assured during the campaign, has begun to seem shrill and panicky, as he was during Monday's speech.
The spectacle of a president at the helm of power who is coming to seem like Captain Queeg from "The Caine Mutiny" is not something that is reassuring. Indeed, during Monday night's speech, if one listened hard enough, one could almost hear the steel balls clacking against one another.
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