Gary J Carter
2008-10-04 16:49:56 UTC
Obama's Challenge: Does He Match Up to Truly Great Leaders?
By Maya Schenwar, TruthOut.org. Posted October 1, 2008.
Robert Kuttner's new book explores the possibilities of an Obama
presidency and compares him to great leaders who came before.
I began reading Robert Kuttner's latest book, Obama's Challenge, three
weeks ago. Then, amid the last two weeks' pandemonium -- the
plummeting stock market, the huge banks tumbling toward death -- I put
it aside. I finished it over the weekend. My timing was soberingly
ironic.
As I turned the final pages of Obama's Challenge, Congressional
leadership was cinching a deal on a $700 billion bailout plan for the
country's wealthiest financial institutions -- a plan that wallowed
universes away from the innovative proposals put forward in Kuttner's
book. Where Kuttner challenges Obama to utilize deficit spending to
finance job-training programs, living wages, public works initiatives
and -- eventually -- universal health care, the bailout plan would
bypass low-income Americans. While Kuttner asks Obama to dip into debt
to get Americans back on their feet from the bottom up, the bill
cobbled together by Paulson and Congress would dip even deeper into
the deficit in order to, for the most part, prop up the very top.
Obama's Challenge warns against doom-mongering fiscal conservatives
who'd block far-reaching programs, prioritizing "virtuous" frugality
over regular Americans' basic needs. In the face of Paulson's $700
billion request, those fiscal conservatives did rear their shaking
heads -- though this time in opposition to a plan that would neglect
regular Americans in favor of Wall Street.
The bill failed in the House initially, but not primarily due to
progressive Democrats backing a Kuttner-like alternative. It failed
because of hard-line conservatives, the folks who would no doubt raise
a ruckus if a President Obama started getting all New-Deal-y after
inauguration.
The creation of, and response to, the bailout plan showcase some of
the barriers an economic change-seeker would face in today's political
climate. However, those barriers are no match for the "transformative
presidency" Kuttner has in mind for Obama.
The book begins by asking readers to take two leaps of faith. One:
Obama will be the next president. Two: Obama, despite his driftings
toward the center-right in recent months, has the imagination, the
heart and the know-how to steer the nation in a wholly new political
direction.
These leaps may seem unduly risky. During my first hour of reading, I
couldn't turn off the whiny little voice in my head, squeaking, "Don't
get your hopes up! Don't get your hopes up!" Kuttner himself calls his
assumption of an Obama victory a "slightly cheeky exercise." But he
also shows that it's a highly useful one. Only by mentally catapulting
Obama into the White House can we fully address the question of what
he should do when he gets there.
Also, Kuttner demonstrates that Obama does in fact have the potential
to initiate Roosevelt-like reform. At one point, by piecing together
excerpts from several of Obama's speeches and writings, Kuttner
constructs a sample speech on the economy that praises the capacity of
expansive government to serve its citizens, rejects the Republican
infatuation with tax cuts for the wealthy and proposes broad new
investments in public education, scientific research, jobs programs
and renewable technologies. Kuttner notes that, using the same
process, he could have constructed a speech full of conciliatory,
"bipartisan" rhetoric and overly cautious proposals.
"Those who become excited about a particular candidate are at grave
risk of getting their hearts broken," he writes, noting that his book
is intended as a "sober counterweight to a lot of bad advice [Obama]
will receive to govern as a post-partisan, pragmatic centrist."But at
heart, Kuttner says, Obama seems more a "principled idealist than a
cynic." That idealism sets him apart from the triangulation and weak
standards that have marked the last two Democratic administrations.
Unlike Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton, according to Kuttner, Obama has
all the makings of a "great president," should he have the true
audacity to undertake that goal.
This means taking full advantage of the authority afforded the
executive branch. Strong use of executive power may seem a terrifying
prospect on the heels of the Bush administration's train of abuses,
scandals and lies. Yet, Kuttner notes, this power is what gives the
president a unique ability to quickly incite large-scale
transformation.
To explore Obama's possibilities, Kuttner delves into the workings of
three former presidents he considers "great": Abraham Lincoln,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Each took incredible
political risks to advance his vision, while connecting deeply with
the public and working to transform stale opinions and status quo
assumptions. Each accomplished colossal goals -- the freeing of the
slaves, the preservation of the union, the overcoming of the Great
Depression, the passage of the Civil Rights Acts -- and won the trust
and collaboration of the American people to accomplish them.
They took advantage of the opportunities their position granted them;
in fact, they took their election as a mandate to seize those
opportunities. Kuttner notes that when Johnson's aides initially
warned him against pushing hard for civil rights, he responded, "Hell,
what's the presidency for?"
Obama has gained a reputation for "reaching across the aisle," a habit
that it's currently fashionable to praise. However, if he's going to
be a transformative president, Obama needs to stop being so goshdarn
politically friendly, according to Kuttner. "Compromise" should not be
a leader's goal; at best, it should be an "endgame" strategy used when
necessary to further big change. Being a great president, then, is not
about getting everyone to like you. In fact, if you've got some
haters, you may well be on the right track.
At the same time, to be a great president, Obama need not steamroll
into the White House and announce an immediate revolution. Kuttner
points out that both Lincoln and Roosevelt grew significantly more
radical in office. Pre-presidency, Roosevelt was viewed as an "affable
lightweight," according to Kuttner, while Lincoln entered office
promising not to interfere with slavery.
In other words, Obama's sometime-hesitance does not mean he's
hopeless.
Finally, Obama shares a key talent with Kuttner's three "great
presidents": he is a gifted and passionate communicator. The best
presidents are teachers, according to Kuttner. Today's economic mess,
he says, calls for an FDR-like president who will sit down with the
American people for fireside chats -- who will talk them through the
crisis, reassure them that government is on their side and instill in
them the hope that their world can change.
If there's anything we know about Obama -- no matter how tired we are
of his campaign slogans -- it's that he has the ability to inspire
hope for change.
Amid the financial upheaval of the past few months, we'd all do well
to take a hint from Robert Kuttner and try out his "cheeky exercise."
A revolutionary tide change just may be hovering on the January
horizon.
After finishing Obama's Challenge and watching the bailout plan (and
the stock market) collapse on Monday, I chatted with author Robert
Kuttner about Obama's options for guiding our economic future.
MS: As I was reading your book, I couldn't stop thinking about this
$700 billion bailout plan. Would it tie Obama's hands?
RK: Not if he plays it right. Obama can use the fact that Paulson and
Bush are willing to spend $700 billion to bail out Wall Street. He can
argue that we need to spend money on that scale for everybody else.
In my book, I said spending would have to go up $600 billion a year.
For the first year, a lot of that's going to have to be recapitalizing
financial institutions, but after that, a lot of it can go for things
like public works, and good jobs, and universal health insurance. In
order to get out of this recession or depression -- whatever it turns
out to be -- public spending's going to have to go up by maybe four
percent of GDP for a few years.
The meltdown completely transforms politics. Things that never
could've been discussed are on the table. That's why it's such an
incredible moment.
Maya Schenwar: Might the fact that we've just spent $700 billion
actually strengthen the fiscal conservatives' case? They could say,
look, we've already spent this much -- how can he ask us to spend
more? How do you deal with that?
Robert Kuttner: Well, you raise taxes on wealthy people, you restore
tax enforcement, you add a transactions tax on stock transactions, you
wind down the war, and maybe you raise the deficit a little bit in the
short run. All of a sudden, the usual conventional wisdom -- that "oh
my God, the most important thing we need to do is cut spending" --
well, you don't do that in a serious financial crisis, because the
government is the one source of public spending that you can count on
when the rest of the economy is pulling in its horns. No serious
person right now could argue for cutting spending.
MS: In your book, you paint Obama as a kind of teacher-president, like
Roosevelt. Do you think the events of the past month, and the bailout
effort, change the lessons he should teach once he gets in office?
RK: He's going to have to be a more radical -- and I mean "radical" in
the best sense of the word -- president than he was a candidate.
Events have become more urgent. And I think he has the character to do
that. I think you're seeing him, with every passing week, rising to
the occasion and using a stronger voice. To be successful in this kind
of a crisis, he's going to have to be very bold, he's going to have to
transform the assumptions about what the government needs to do. And
you know, he's getting there. He's not getting there quite as fast as
I'd like him to, but I think events are forcing his hand.
MS: One of the things that struck me, in your book, was the idea that
a great president can be defined by the presence of a great enemy. Do
you think Obama has it in him to make enemies?
He's either going to do it or he's going to fail. It's interesting --
he likes to view himself as the bridge builder. But if he's president,
and he's trying to pass a bill to put people back to work or to get
universal health insurance or to refinance homes for millions of
people who are losing them, and right-wing Republicans and Wall Street
try to stand in his way, then yes, I think he's capable of defining
who the enemy is.You really have to do that. Clinton was not willing
to define the private insurance industry as the enemy, the last time
the Democrats tried to get universal health care, and he failed.
Maya Schenwar an editor and reporter for Truthout.
By Maya Schenwar, TruthOut.org. Posted October 1, 2008.
Robert Kuttner's new book explores the possibilities of an Obama
presidency and compares him to great leaders who came before.
I began reading Robert Kuttner's latest book, Obama's Challenge, three
weeks ago. Then, amid the last two weeks' pandemonium -- the
plummeting stock market, the huge banks tumbling toward death -- I put
it aside. I finished it over the weekend. My timing was soberingly
ironic.
As I turned the final pages of Obama's Challenge, Congressional
leadership was cinching a deal on a $700 billion bailout plan for the
country's wealthiest financial institutions -- a plan that wallowed
universes away from the innovative proposals put forward in Kuttner's
book. Where Kuttner challenges Obama to utilize deficit spending to
finance job-training programs, living wages, public works initiatives
and -- eventually -- universal health care, the bailout plan would
bypass low-income Americans. While Kuttner asks Obama to dip into debt
to get Americans back on their feet from the bottom up, the bill
cobbled together by Paulson and Congress would dip even deeper into
the deficit in order to, for the most part, prop up the very top.
Obama's Challenge warns against doom-mongering fiscal conservatives
who'd block far-reaching programs, prioritizing "virtuous" frugality
over regular Americans' basic needs. In the face of Paulson's $700
billion request, those fiscal conservatives did rear their shaking
heads -- though this time in opposition to a plan that would neglect
regular Americans in favor of Wall Street.
The bill failed in the House initially, but not primarily due to
progressive Democrats backing a Kuttner-like alternative. It failed
because of hard-line conservatives, the folks who would no doubt raise
a ruckus if a President Obama started getting all New-Deal-y after
inauguration.
The creation of, and response to, the bailout plan showcase some of
the barriers an economic change-seeker would face in today's political
climate. However, those barriers are no match for the "transformative
presidency" Kuttner has in mind for Obama.
The book begins by asking readers to take two leaps of faith. One:
Obama will be the next president. Two: Obama, despite his driftings
toward the center-right in recent months, has the imagination, the
heart and the know-how to steer the nation in a wholly new political
direction.
These leaps may seem unduly risky. During my first hour of reading, I
couldn't turn off the whiny little voice in my head, squeaking, "Don't
get your hopes up! Don't get your hopes up!" Kuttner himself calls his
assumption of an Obama victory a "slightly cheeky exercise." But he
also shows that it's a highly useful one. Only by mentally catapulting
Obama into the White House can we fully address the question of what
he should do when he gets there.
Also, Kuttner demonstrates that Obama does in fact have the potential
to initiate Roosevelt-like reform. At one point, by piecing together
excerpts from several of Obama's speeches and writings, Kuttner
constructs a sample speech on the economy that praises the capacity of
expansive government to serve its citizens, rejects the Republican
infatuation with tax cuts for the wealthy and proposes broad new
investments in public education, scientific research, jobs programs
and renewable technologies. Kuttner notes that, using the same
process, he could have constructed a speech full of conciliatory,
"bipartisan" rhetoric and overly cautious proposals.
"Those who become excited about a particular candidate are at grave
risk of getting their hearts broken," he writes, noting that his book
is intended as a "sober counterweight to a lot of bad advice [Obama]
will receive to govern as a post-partisan, pragmatic centrist."But at
heart, Kuttner says, Obama seems more a "principled idealist than a
cynic." That idealism sets him apart from the triangulation and weak
standards that have marked the last two Democratic administrations.
Unlike Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton, according to Kuttner, Obama has
all the makings of a "great president," should he have the true
audacity to undertake that goal.
This means taking full advantage of the authority afforded the
executive branch. Strong use of executive power may seem a terrifying
prospect on the heels of the Bush administration's train of abuses,
scandals and lies. Yet, Kuttner notes, this power is what gives the
president a unique ability to quickly incite large-scale
transformation.
To explore Obama's possibilities, Kuttner delves into the workings of
three former presidents he considers "great": Abraham Lincoln,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Each took incredible
political risks to advance his vision, while connecting deeply with
the public and working to transform stale opinions and status quo
assumptions. Each accomplished colossal goals -- the freeing of the
slaves, the preservation of the union, the overcoming of the Great
Depression, the passage of the Civil Rights Acts -- and won the trust
and collaboration of the American people to accomplish them.
They took advantage of the opportunities their position granted them;
in fact, they took their election as a mandate to seize those
opportunities. Kuttner notes that when Johnson's aides initially
warned him against pushing hard for civil rights, he responded, "Hell,
what's the presidency for?"
Obama has gained a reputation for "reaching across the aisle," a habit
that it's currently fashionable to praise. However, if he's going to
be a transformative president, Obama needs to stop being so goshdarn
politically friendly, according to Kuttner. "Compromise" should not be
a leader's goal; at best, it should be an "endgame" strategy used when
necessary to further big change. Being a great president, then, is not
about getting everyone to like you. In fact, if you've got some
haters, you may well be on the right track.
At the same time, to be a great president, Obama need not steamroll
into the White House and announce an immediate revolution. Kuttner
points out that both Lincoln and Roosevelt grew significantly more
radical in office. Pre-presidency, Roosevelt was viewed as an "affable
lightweight," according to Kuttner, while Lincoln entered office
promising not to interfere with slavery.
In other words, Obama's sometime-hesitance does not mean he's
hopeless.
Finally, Obama shares a key talent with Kuttner's three "great
presidents": he is a gifted and passionate communicator. The best
presidents are teachers, according to Kuttner. Today's economic mess,
he says, calls for an FDR-like president who will sit down with the
American people for fireside chats -- who will talk them through the
crisis, reassure them that government is on their side and instill in
them the hope that their world can change.
If there's anything we know about Obama -- no matter how tired we are
of his campaign slogans -- it's that he has the ability to inspire
hope for change.
Amid the financial upheaval of the past few months, we'd all do well
to take a hint from Robert Kuttner and try out his "cheeky exercise."
A revolutionary tide change just may be hovering on the January
horizon.
After finishing Obama's Challenge and watching the bailout plan (and
the stock market) collapse on Monday, I chatted with author Robert
Kuttner about Obama's options for guiding our economic future.
MS: As I was reading your book, I couldn't stop thinking about this
$700 billion bailout plan. Would it tie Obama's hands?
RK: Not if he plays it right. Obama can use the fact that Paulson and
Bush are willing to spend $700 billion to bail out Wall Street. He can
argue that we need to spend money on that scale for everybody else.
In my book, I said spending would have to go up $600 billion a year.
For the first year, a lot of that's going to have to be recapitalizing
financial institutions, but after that, a lot of it can go for things
like public works, and good jobs, and universal health insurance. In
order to get out of this recession or depression -- whatever it turns
out to be -- public spending's going to have to go up by maybe four
percent of GDP for a few years.
The meltdown completely transforms politics. Things that never
could've been discussed are on the table. That's why it's such an
incredible moment.
Maya Schenwar: Might the fact that we've just spent $700 billion
actually strengthen the fiscal conservatives' case? They could say,
look, we've already spent this much -- how can he ask us to spend
more? How do you deal with that?
Robert Kuttner: Well, you raise taxes on wealthy people, you restore
tax enforcement, you add a transactions tax on stock transactions, you
wind down the war, and maybe you raise the deficit a little bit in the
short run. All of a sudden, the usual conventional wisdom -- that "oh
my God, the most important thing we need to do is cut spending" --
well, you don't do that in a serious financial crisis, because the
government is the one source of public spending that you can count on
when the rest of the economy is pulling in its horns. No serious
person right now could argue for cutting spending.
MS: In your book, you paint Obama as a kind of teacher-president, like
Roosevelt. Do you think the events of the past month, and the bailout
effort, change the lessons he should teach once he gets in office?
RK: He's going to have to be a more radical -- and I mean "radical" in
the best sense of the word -- president than he was a candidate.
Events have become more urgent. And I think he has the character to do
that. I think you're seeing him, with every passing week, rising to
the occasion and using a stronger voice. To be successful in this kind
of a crisis, he's going to have to be very bold, he's going to have to
transform the assumptions about what the government needs to do. And
you know, he's getting there. He's not getting there quite as fast as
I'd like him to, but I think events are forcing his hand.
MS: One of the things that struck me, in your book, was the idea that
a great president can be defined by the presence of a great enemy. Do
you think Obama has it in him to make enemies?
He's either going to do it or he's going to fail. It's interesting --
he likes to view himself as the bridge builder. But if he's president,
and he's trying to pass a bill to put people back to work or to get
universal health insurance or to refinance homes for millions of
people who are losing them, and right-wing Republicans and Wall Street
try to stand in his way, then yes, I think he's capable of defining
who the enemy is.You really have to do that. Clinton was not willing
to define the private insurance industry as the enemy, the last time
the Democrats tried to get universal health care, and he failed.
Maya Schenwar an editor and reporter for Truthout.