The presser. A couple of thoughts.

Getting better. (©CNN)

So the week started out with a new briefing from the President. Smart choice, content ok, but still -  so much lost opportunity.

A few points and reflections:

• Making fun of the others is nice for those who agree, but unnecessary provocative for the opponent. Or put another way, it’s fun but unprofessional.
• Educating people is good. If a chart or a fact appears on Think Progress or DailyKos – half the country dismiss it as propaganda and communist lies. If spoken by the president, it’s taken more seriously. The source matters.
• The centrist-first pose is problematic. “I stand in the center, and take heat from the left” is bad politics and craftmanship. You run as Democrat, a moderate liberal, so you stand firmly on the progressive side and then walk to the center. To get things done. Starting on compromise doesn’t work in practice.
• As usual, the best statements come when the president is fed up. At journalists. Then he spells it out.

Other than this – the donors will probably go for tax hikes rather then treasury downgrade, so this “no” stuff might be entertainment or show-off for the far right base. Unless, as might be the case, they whipped up the anti-tax and anti-”government” sentiments too strong, and lost control of their own agenda.

But all in all, a productive presser.

So timid.. but a step in the right direction.

Good on paper - timid on delivery.

A couple of afterthoughts from yesterday’s presser:

• Content was good. Centrist, obvious facts about the disease of greed and theft that is plaguing America.
• Good focus on where the problem lies. The 1% wants everything – at all cost.
• A timid, but ok delivery. Very defensive in pointing out simple things that 70-80% of the country are supportive of.
• Finally using the bully pulpit – it’s a strong tool. The people elected him to lead and make choices, so folks listen.

Now for some problems:

• Way too careful and scared.
• You can’t appeal to reason – if the others want different things.
• He has the support, he has the formal power – but he’s uncomfortable with confrontation. At this point, that is a personal trait that in part could spark another financial crises, and add a few more years in the slump.
• Take-away impressions in terms of the pending deadlines – he’ll cave to half-way solutions and postpone the bigger fights of reversing theft from the people and corruption in government.

But somehow, even if he seemed uncomfortable with the format, and somewhat forced – the presidential office is strong – so the process was probably moved a little bit towards improvement yesterday. Maybe not this summer, but a small step towards calling out this handful of people playing with the country and suffering the diseases of greed. At the expense of everybody.