Daddy issues

I rarely quote Reagan. But his "There they go again" line is quite appropriate today. It seems the usual suspects are whining again that daddy, I mean, President Obama, is not emoting enough. You see, if Obama got really, really, really mad, he could halt the stock market plunge, save America and guarantee his reelection, all in a single bound. Dana Milbank, the oracle of the daily meme, says it's unfair to blame Obama for the rout. Then he blames him anyway:

"Almost certainly, the markets ignored him. And that’s the problem: The most powerful man in the world seems strangely powerless, and irresolute, as larger forces bring down the country and his presidency."

Um, is Rome burning or did I miss something? You'd think we've never had a bad day on Wall Street. And yet, the nation's fate and Obama's presidency is suddenly hanging by a thread, say the pundits. At yesterday's White House presser, CBS’s Norah O’Donnell demanded to know, "Where’s the sense of urgency? I mean, the Dow dropped below 11,000 — Why not call Congress back to work?” Sighing, press secy Carney had to school the press pool about the separation of powers thing (the president can't call Congress back). Darn Constitution. What were the Framers thinking? In his address yesterday, Obama reminded us that "there will always be economic factors that we can’t control." To which Milbank snarked, "But it would be nice if the president gave it a try." Gee, how helpful.

Piling on, Richard Cohen actually asked if anyone could image Obama crying. Yes, crying. Really. "Obama’s communications handicap, his loathing for the pornography of politics, could cost him a second term," Cohen laments. So let me get this straight. To rescue America and himself, Obama must fly into a rage, rip down curtains and break furniture in the Oval Office, hurl presidential epithets at Wall Street, summon his inner Moses and "command" the Dow Jones to return to its previous highs, drop to his knees and cry in front of the cameras, and go all Huey Long on us to shore up his street cred as a political pornographer. Right. That'll work.