The Big Question: How can Obama, Dems mend relationship?

Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said:
The Congressional Democrats, like the rest of the country, would like to see President Obama show some real leadership instead of echoing the Republicans. We know that the only way to get the economy on a strong growth track is by having the government take the lead.

This is not about ideology, it is about logic and arithmetic. The private sector is not going to invest in an economy that is not growing, with consumers buried in debt. The government will have to provide the original boost and then the private sector will step in. Happy talk about jobs and optimism will not change this reality.

President Obama must push the case for more stimulus and job creation to the country. If the Republicans and Blue Dogs won’t support him, then he must hold their feet to the fire. They are wrecking the economy and keeping families from being able to support their children.

President Obama and his staff know this. They must step up to the plate and show leadership.

Peter Navarro, professor of economics and public policy at U.C. Irvine, said:
They can’t.  Obama needs to “triangulate” like Clinton once did to survive.   The bigger problem for both Congress and Obama is that the country is moving towards the center and right because of Dem malfeasance on the economy and high profile events like BP spill.  It’s a confederacy of dunces and a lot of smart people in the White House doing dumb things.

Bernie Quigley, Pundits Blog Contributor, said:
The problems can’t be overstated. That Democrats are showing dismay at this point shows them to be a feckless, faithless lot. It appears to suggest evidence that Malcolm X was correct in his approach; white liberals patronize blacks and do not see them as equals. Obama is however, the best liberal President in the post-war period. His mistake is in agreeing to fulfill their narcissistic dreams of racial utopia; he will be a footnote to Roosevelt, Kennedy and Lincoln hagiographers who swarmed the MSM in his election. He has not yet made this Presidency his own. He needs to trust his instincts and ban the Clintons from the White House. They are poison to an Obama Presidency and will likely raise a challenge to him – that is part of today’s conspicuous discontent with Obama. It is prelude. There is still time for the Clintons to destroy the Democratic Party. There may be time  for them to destroy the  country.