On pandering, roping dopes, and the hidden message

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My apologies for not providing an pre-Obamacare-speech analysis before tonight. My punishment is loss of any predictive cred I could have gained by being punctual, but I've been a little run down for a few days. Anyway, the text of Obama's speech is here for your reading pleasure in case you're interested.

First, the pandering: people much more clever than StuporMundi, including the Chief himself, determined that the speech had to include a dram of denouncing "partisan spectacle" and a small overdose of "the time for bickering is over." It makes the President look diplomatic, which is a high priority in this hateful environment, but it also panders to right-wingers by implying that liberals were behind some of the fear, uncertainty, and distrust (and bare hatred) we've been reading and hearing about for months. No: the incivility and lies are the exclusive creation of people who call themselves conservatives, paid for and incited into violent expression by organizations with strong ties to the Republican politburo. OK, whatever. At least he got it out of the way early.

Second, the dope-roping: I think he did a pretty good job of taking down the big Republican lies about healthcare reform, namely the "death panels," the "free lunch" for brown-colored illegal immigrants, and the "government takeover" canards. He and every Democrat will have to repeat these points relentlessly every day from here to eternity in speeches and news network appearances, of course, but his concise handling of them made the official Republican rebuttal afterward sound especially puny. It won't matter, though, without public pushback each and every day. Because this current breed of Republicans will never, ever stop lying about anything, period. (Big dope-roping bonus: here's the website of the troglodyte from South Carolina who called Obama a liar during a joint session of Congress on national television. Tomorrow he'll be the new Sarah Palin.)

Third, the hidden message: I think it was real, but admittedly it may have been perceived by StuporMundi in his zeal to find friendly faces in the wallpaper. Starting four paragraphs from the end, BHO seemed to fire a warning shot in the direction of Ronald Reagan's casket. Honestly, I hope that I'm correct, and that he's loaded for bears, and that he has a bad-ass (and highly caucasoid) posse help him take it to the streets. In my view, Obama may have explicitly opened up on the entire malignant premise of the Reagan Revolution by proposing that "the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little," and by supporting this novel point with references to the collapse of our predatory economy. Hundreds of thousands of middle-class, middle-road Americans are going bankrupt or insane from worry about their loss of financial stability.

Obama better not have stirred that pot without being prepared personally to lead the emancipation of us unwashed masses, and especially those loathsome political creatures called "centrists" and "Blue Dogs," from the delusion that the market can provide everything a democracy needs. He can't accomplish this using traditional leftist-sounding rhetoric, though. I'd expect him to edge toward a sort of civility-tinged populism, undeniable in its intent, but performing a sort of lethal surgical strike on the Reaganomics Mother Ship while tastefully avoiding the blanket demonization of Establishment players whose indulgence he needs in order to survive. I think Obama may see his historical task as the repair and even advancement of a national consensus where everyone understands that government, corporate, and individual interests must be well enough balanced for all to coexist and prosper. That would be a huge job after 30 years of American political dementia, the Reagan gift that keeps on giving.