Time For Obama to Really Act Like FDR

President Obama never encouraged the media concocted, ad man’s fantasy land, comparison of him to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He didn’t discourage the comparison either. He was flattered by it. But with the Massachusetts vote debacle smacking him in the face, his only hope for rebound is to really act like FDR.

FDR knew he was in a political life and death, take no prisoners war with his political enemies– the GOP, ultra conservative Democrats, Wall Street, the big bankers and big manufacturers. He repeatedly lambasted them as obstructionists and economic royalists. Obama is in the same war. They make absolutely no effort to mask their loath of his policies and presidency, and have made it clear they will stop at nothing to bounce him from office. This was before Scott Brown’s win. They’ll be even more bellicose, intransigent and war like against him and his agenda now.
FDR didn’t just hit back, and hit back hard, against the economic royalists. He did not make weak appeals and empty threats to banks and Wall Street to be responsible, do the right thing, and ramp up lending to businesses, farm and homeowners, and pump money into job creation efforts. He imposed tough regulations on them. One of the toughest was the Glass Steagall Act. The congressional gut of Glass-Steagall unleashed the orgy of Wall Street freeboot speculation, trading, swaps, and scams of investors, borrowers and the government that nearly wrecked the economy.

FDR’s bank and Wall Street rein in sent the blunt message that he meant business on financial reform and that this was a key to job creation, saving homes, and getting businesses up and going. FDR spent, and spent, and spent some more on jobs, housing, and social service, public works in the right way. FDR did not resort to smoke and mirror photo-op, PR, showpiece White House jobs summits, conferences, and imploring business councils to expand and create jobs. He put the money directly in the hands of the needy through the litany of alphabet recovery programs.

Obama has belatedly acknowledged that Glass-Steagall must be reinstated. That’s only a start. Obama should do what FDR did and plough stimulus dollars directly into government run job training programs, job banks, and public works projects.
FDR’s economic brain trust were tough, reform minded academics and public officials, not Wall Street, and corporate shills. Obama should put the same team around him. That means asking for the immediate resignation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. His bumbles, manipulation and outright lies as New York Federal Reserve Chairman and as treasury secretary to cover up the malfeasance of AIG, Goldman, Sachs and other Wall Street wheeler dealers have done more to taint Obama as a hopeless captive of Wall Street. Giving Geithner the boot would reinforce a tough message that Wall Street and the banks must toe the administration line on reform.
FDR would quickly pull the plug if something didn’t work or worked badly to advance his agenda. The health care reform bill is that something. Obama should yank it off the Senate table. His mistake was not to battle for health care reform, but to battle for it at the wrong time and on the wrong terms. It was a fight that was preordained to be long, contentious, embittered, and ultimately shamelessly compromised; a fight that let a GOP, flat on its back, off the canvas. He should revisit the issue later and this time write the bill himself with a fully functioning public option, firm cost containment measures, and tough monitoring provisions. Then quietly and patiently sell congressional leaders and the public on it.

FDR made sure that when he went to war it was truly the right war in the right place at the right time. He had America’s allies and the American people firmly behind him. Afghanistan and certainly Iraq are not the right wars, and only for a brief moment did they have the full cooperation of America’s allies, and the American public firmly behind them. Obama should set and stick to a firm date for withdrawal, call a regional conference of allies to inform them of the exit plan, and then demand that they make regional security, containment, and peace as much their responsibility as the US’s. He should then announce that the billions saved from disengagement will go directly into a massive program of jobs, education, housing expansion and infrastructure rebuilding—in America.

FDR did not substitute rock star photo op, stagey, high profile media posturing for tough leadership. When the GOP and the press wrote the epitaph for him midway through his second term in 1938 and a decade later wrote the same epitaph for Truman both came out swinging. FDR took to the airwaves and blasted the economic royalists. Truman tooled through the nation with his famed whistle stop train campaign and hammered the do nothing GOP congress.

FDR and Truman fired up their base, inspired millions of Americans, continued to push reform, and kept the presidency. Obama could do the same. But only if he really acts like FDR.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press) is NOW available – http://www.amazon.com/How-Obama-Governed-Crisis-Challenge/dp/1439259925

Content for Blog Outreach Participants for How Obama Governed

These posts are available for participants in the How Obama Governed blog outreach campaign January 25-29,  2010. Please look through the titles and the posts to see which message you would like to share with your blog visitors. Then we simply need you to copy the full post and then paste it into your blog. Please let me know the blog address where the information will be posted and the date you want to post – that will allow us to promote the post on your blog which will generate more exposure for your blog and for Dr Earl Ofari Hutchinson and his latest book – How Obama Governed.  Any questions, contact – nikki@nikkileigh.com

How Obama Governed by Earl Ofari Hutchinson – Now Available

Author Says Obama Faces New Crisis with Election Loss of Top Democrats

Author Says Terror War Is Obama’s New Nightmare

Author Says Terror War Poses Major Challenge to Obama’s Leadership

Author Tells Why Obama Flopped on Health Care Reform

Explanation of Why Obama’s Popularity Has Plunged Faster Than Bush

Political Analyst and Author Earl Ofari Hutchinson Dissects Obama’s First Year in Office

Author Says Racial Controversies Will Continue to Dog Obama

Middle Passage Press

January 12, 2010
for Immediate Release
Contact:

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

323-383-6145

Author Interview Availability:

323-383-6145

Author Says Racial Controversies Will Continue to Dog Obama

The racially loaded quips by Nevada Senator Harry Reid and former President Bill Clinton are symptomatic of a problem that will continue to dog President Obama. The problem is racial controversy says author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

In his new book How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge, Hutchinson details how race has always lurked at or near the surface during the presidential campaign and how the issue continues to pose problems and challenges for Obama.  In his chapter, “Obama’s Racial Trainwreck,” he discusses the lingering impact that the flap over the racially incendiary remarks by Obama’s former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, has had on White House policy regarding racial issues.

Hutchinson predicted that there would be a continuing parade of overt and subtle racial digs, quips and comments regarding Obama from GOP officials and even Democrats. Hutchinson also notes that Obama will be challenged by African-American leaders to do and say more about race and civil rights.

Though race did not hamper Obama’s election efforts, says Hutchinson, it has always been a compelling and sensitive public policy issue for many Americans. Hutchinson notes that there was no chance that Obama could totally escape being drawn into the middle of racial issues.

Hutchinson predicted in How Obama Governed that there will be more racial controversies during Obama’s term. They will spark even greater public debate about the role of race in American life and equally important the role it plays in how Obama governs.

In How Obama Governed, Hutchinson gives a no holds barred assessment of the make and break issues that confront Obama in 2010. These are the issues that will determine whether Obama can really deliver on his lofty promise of hope and change.

Author Says Obama Faces New Crisis with Election Loss of Top Democrats

Middle Passage Press

January 8, 2009
for Immediate Release
Contact:

Earl Ofari Hutchinson 323-383-6145

Or Nikki Leigh 540-466-4699

Author Interview Availability:

323-383-6145 or 540-466-4699

Author Says Obama Faces New Crisis with Election Loss of Top Democrats

The announcement that Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd and other leading Democrats won’t run for re-election puts poses a new crisis President Obama. In his new book How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge, author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson predicted that there would be major losses among Democrats in 2010. He noted that some of those losses would be among top Democrats.

Hutchinson notes that this could cripple Obama’s efforts to get his agenda on immigration, cap and trade, implementing health care reforms, and his judicial appointments through Congress. It will also mortally wound Obama’s efforts to make bi-partisanship the watchword of his administration.

“The loss, defection, and potential defeat of top Democrats in 2010 will stiffen the GOP in its opposition to much of Obama’s agenda,” says Hutchinson, “It will also put Democrats on the political defensive. This will present yet another major challenge to Obama’s administration to stem the tide of political reverses.”

In How Obama Won, Hutchinson gives a no holds barred assessment of the make and break issues that confront Obama in 2010. These are the issues that will determine whether Obama can really deliver on his lofty promise of hope and change.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press) is NOW available – http://www.amazon.com/How-Obama-Governed-Crisis-Challenge/dp/1439259925

Author Says Terror War Is Obama’s New Nightmare

Middle Passage Press

January 4, 2010
for Immediate Release
Contact:

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

323-383-6145

Author Interview Availability:

323-383-6145

Author Says Terror War Is Obama’s New Nightmare

Terrorism was a non issue for President Obama during most of the first year of his administration. That has now changed, and changed dramatically, says author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson. The failed Northwest airline bombing and reports that Obama was briefed weeks before that the threat level of a possible terrorist attack had grown again raised serious questions about the Obama administration’s readiness and willingness to deal with a serious terrorist threat,

In his new book How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge, author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson detailed how the issue of terrorism and the fight against it was the Achilles Heel for Obama during the presidential campaign. Hutchinson predicted that terrorism and the war in Afghanistan would pose major challenges to the Obama administration. Hutchinson also notes in the book that the twin issues of war and terrorism will be crucial political attack points for a resurgent GOP.

Hutchinson notes that polls during the presidential campaign showed that terrorism continued to be a prime concern of a significant percent of American voters and that they wanted the Obama administration to take a tough stance on it. In the wake of the failed airline attack, Obama’s performance and actions in the anti-terror battle, notes Hutchinson, is and will be even more closely scrutinized by the public.

Hutchinson predicted in How Obama Governed that the terrorism issue would take on growing significance in 2010. He also noted that any perceived weakness or lack of resolve by the Obama administration in the anti-terrorism fight will have a profound impact on the congressional elections in November 2010, and beyond.

In How Obama Won, Hutchinson gives a no holds barred assessment of the make and break issues that confront Obama in 2010. These are the issues that will determine whether Obama can really deliver on his lofty promise of hope and change.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press) is NOW available – http://www.amazon.com/How-Obama-Governed-Crisis-Challenge/dp/1439259925

Author Says Terror War Poses Major Challenge to Obama’s Leadership

Middle Passage Press

December 29, 2009

for Immediate Release

Contact: Earl Ofari Hutchinson

323-383-6145

Author Interview Availability:  323-383-6145

Author Says Terror War Poses Major Challenge to Obama’s Leadership

The failed airline terror attack poses a new and grave challenge to President Obama. The challenge is not just the threat of terror attacks on U.S. persons and property. The challenge is also to his leadership. In his new book How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge, author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson assesses the impact and consequences of the terrorism fight on the Obama administration.

Hutchinson notes that voters gave Obama consistently low ratings on his ability to wage the war against terrorism. The overwhelming majority of Americans said that Obama was too young, inexperienced, and too politically liberal to wage a tough, and relentless fight against terrorists abroad. The challenge to Obama, notes Hutchinson, is and will continue to be how to overcome voter negative view of his perceived weakness in the antiterror battle.

Hutchinson predicted that there would be major tests for Obama such as the failed airline attack that would make it imperative for him to take firm action to combat the threats. The American public will keep a close watch on Obama to see if he can act swiftly and resolutely when to thwart violence.

“How Obama reacts to the terror threats and even possible attacks,” says Hutchinson,” Will be a major deal maker or breaker for the voters in how they view Obama’s leadership.”

In How Obama Won, Hutchinson gives a no holds barred assessment of the make and break issues that confront Obama in 2010. These are the issues that will determine whether Obama can really deliver on his lofty promise of hope and change.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press) is NOW available – http://www.amazon.com/How-Obama-Governed-Crisis-Challenge/dp/1439259925

Author Tells Why Obama Flopped on Health Care Reform

Middle Passage Press

December 21, 2009
for Immediate Release
Contact:

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

323-383-6145

Author Tells Why Obama Flopped on Health Care Reform

President Barack Obama called health reform the centerpiece of his agenda. He says that passage of the health reform bill will be a triumph for the country. Author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson disputes Obama’s declaration that health care reform is a victory for the country and even his administration. In his new book How Obama Governed predicted that the health care reform fight would prove a disaster for the Obama administration. Hutchinson noted that Obama simply did not have the political experience, skill or energy to educate congress and the American public on what and why his version of health care reform was right for the needs of the country.

The result, as Hutchinson, predicted, has been a fiasco. Whatever health care reform bill that finally emerges from Congress and that Obama signs will infuriate and inflame liberals and conservatives. It will be a major hammer that the GOP will effectively wield against Obama in the media and on the political trail. It will be a tipping point for the GOP to make a major inroad in Congress and state governments in 2010.

Hutchinson notes that Obama’s handling of health care, the economy, the Iraq and Afghan wars, and financial reform are vital litmus tests that voters will use to gauge Obama’s effectiveness as a president and effective leader. The jury so far is leaning decidedly against him.

In How Obama Governed, Hutchinson gives a no holds barred assessment of the make and break issues that confront Obama in 2010. These are the issues that will determine whether Obama can really deliver on his lofty promise of hope and change.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press) is NOW available – http://www.amazon.com/How-Obama-Governed-Crisis-Challenge/dp/1439259925

Explanation of Why Obama’s Popularity Has Plunged Faster Than Bush

Middle Passage Press

December 16, 2009
for Immediate Release

Contact: Earl Ofari Hutchinson

323-383-6145

Author Tells Why Obama’s Continued Popularity has Plunged Faster than Bush’s

President Obama’s popularity rating in December polls has plummeted faster than former President Bush’s at the same juncture of their presidency. In his new book How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge, author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson predicted that Obama’s popularity ratings would drop fast.  “The war, the economy, and health care reform were important in Obama’s popularity plunge, Hutchinson argues, “they aren’t the only reason for the drop.”

Obama is a victim of his own rhetoric of hope and change, says Hutchinson in How Obama Won. Obama revved up people’s expectations of immediate change on everything from the economy to the wars. The performance could never match the rhetoric, says Hutchinson

“The problem is that Obama tapped into the public’s deep seated frustration and disgust with politics and politicians,” says Hutchinson, “Once the tap was made the public expected Obama to be different and act different than other politicians. The reality is that he’s no different and that’s a prescription for personal and political failure.”

Hutchinson further predicts that Obama’s popularity numbers will continue to plunge in 2010 and that the Democrats will be mortally hurt in the year’s mid term elections.

In How Obama Won, Hutchinson gives a no holds barred assessment of the make and break issues that confront Obama in 2010. These are the issues that will determine whether Obama can really deliver on his lofty promise of hope and change.

How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge

(Middle Passage Press, Los Angeles, 2010)

5517 Secrest Dr. Los Angeles, Ca, 90043

323-296-6331

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press) is NOW available – http://www.amazon.com/How-Obama-Governed-Crisis-Challenge/dp/1439259925

Political Analyst and Author Earl Ofari Hutchinson Dissects Obama’s First Year in Office

How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge
(Middle Passage Press, Los Angeles, January 2010)
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson takes a no-political holds barred look at Obama’s first year in office in his forthcoming How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He answers one compelling question: Did he fulfill the massive and sweeping promise he made to restore hope and effect change in America?

He examines the attacks and counterattacks from the GOP and the Democrats on Obama. He delineates the differences and similarities between Obama and Bush in waging the war on terrorism. He assesses the towering battles over health care, the economy, racial attacks, the GOP counterinsurgency, Afghanistan, and the Henry Louis Gates flap. He provides readers with a guide as to how Obama will continue to govern.

How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge offers a virtual political clinic on the crisis and challenges that the nation and its first African-American president faced his first year in the White House.

To book Earl Ofari Hutchinson for an interview and/or commentary on the promise and pitfalls of Obama’s first year in office. Call 1-323-383-6145 to schedule. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a nationally acclaimed author and political analyst. Hutchinson is the author of ten books on race and politics in America.

His three most recent books are:

* How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge

* How Obama Won

* The Ethnic Presidency: How Race decides the Race to the White House

His featured interviews and comments on race and politics have appeared in: Time Newsweek New York Times ABC’s World News Tonight.

He has been a guest analyst on:

* Fox News John Gibson Show

* O’Reilly Show

* Hannity & Colmes

* Glenn Beck Show

* PBS Lehrer Report

* NPR’s Talk of the Nation

* CNN News Shows

He is the National Political Writer for New America Media and a regular contributor to: the Huffington Post