Good Advice

From the New York Times
Accessed 18 July 2010
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/opinion/18obama.html?pagewanted=5&_r=1&hp

Robert Shrum:

"After a period of transformative change in his first two years in office, Ronald Reagan saw his approval rating sink to 35 percent amid a deep recession. In the 1982 midterm election, Republicans, already a minority in the House of Representatives, lost 26 seats. Soon afterward, Democrats confidently began challenging President Reagan’s re-election, denouncing his determination to “stay the course.” Yet in 1984 Reagan was returned to office in a landslide.

During his first term, joblessness had soared to nearly 11 percent, but by the time voters considered him for a second term, it had dropped to 7.2, a bit lower than when he first took office. Reagan carried 49 states because Americans knew that while the country had not yet reached an economic high noon, it was truly “morning again in America.”

President Obama is ideally suited to stay his own course. He’s been criticized for being too cool. But that’s exactly the quality this difficult time demands. By 2012, the decisive test will be not some level of growth and job creation, but public perception of whether the economy and the nation are doing better.

Mr. Obama needs only to be himself.

President Obama could maneuver his way to re-election without a mandate. But he promised in the speech that propelled him to victory in the Iowa caucuses to lead “not by calculation, but by conviction.” “Triangulating and poll-driven positions,” as he said, “just won’t do.”

—ROBERT SHRUM, senior fellow at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University and author of “No Excuses” "
The New York Times

(In this same article, I also enjoyed Jonathan Alter's and Harry Ford Jr.'s suggestion of a six month payroll tax holiday for businesses).