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Remember When Obama Lost Stride the First Time?

Remember last summer when Obama headed off to meet European leaders and drew huge, adoring crowds in the hundreds of thousands, and the media covered his travels as if he was ALREADY President? In contrast at the time, John McCain looked irrelevant.

McCain's new campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, countered with a new playbook and TV ads that sought to attack Obama as nothing more than a 'celebrity,' as 'uppity,' as the 'Messiah' and they started to make the election about Obama. Remember those startling and entertaining TV commercials that compared Obama to Paris Hilton? Welcome to the Republican playbook 101. Trash. It took the public several weeks to realize that the Republicans were all mind-games and no substance. Because there were few policy solutions in the Republican play book. Only criticism of Obama for being popular combined with stale, failed ideas - like tax cuts for business. What Schmidt succeeded in doing was throwing off Obama's game. Maybe it was just the law of physics - a pendulum swing...what goes up must come down.

The same pattern is happening now with the Stimulus Bill. The Republicans are in their first joust with the White House. In response to Obama's olive branch approach to Congress - meetings at Congress, meetings at the White House, etc. - the Republican minority decided to play hardball (thanks Chris Matthews) and demonstrate the power of the minority at a time when bi-partisanship is needed.

Rather than joining on a Stimulus Bill to create jobs, the Republicans are stonewalling, focusing on the less than 1% of the proposed bill they consider to be unrelated to job creation, and voting no as a bloc. It's a good PR stunt when every day we are losing jobs and people are suffering. While this bill is far from perfect, Obama feels we simply need to put $800 billion dollars into the system to get things moving. And I honestly have no proof it will work - nobody does. This is take your best shot. But, we elected Obama to take the shot.

While it appears the Republicans have taken control of the debate on the Stimulus Bill and put the President on the defensive, this will turn in Obama's favor because the Republicans have shown themselves to be sad losers, and somewhat vindictive in their approach to the American people. They will seek to deny the American public a powerful economic engine for growth - one that will put people back to work - for politics sake. And by playing terrible tactics, they will continue in their free fall as a party.

Look, Obama is a fierce competitor who may appear to lose now and again, but don't count on it. He starts out kind and if you want to play nice, he will play nice. If you diss him, he will outlast you, out-think you and never give up.

A majority of American have entrusted national leadership to Obama and the Democratic majority and the Republicans should play nice.

Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats Dragging Down Obama

It's fairly obvious that the Democratic Congress and the Obama Team have misjudged the process of passing the Stimulus package in Congress. The Republicans decided to oppose it in the House and nobody on the Republican side voted for it. Now the Senate Republicans might follow suit (despite being wined and dined at the White House by Obama).

There is a lesson here for Obama: while he wishes to govern in a bi-partisan way, the Republicans have little to gain by helping the Democrats solve the economic crisis. The Republicans feel they can gain back their power by doing everything possible to ensure the failure of Barack Obama. And with Nancy Pelosi driving Congressional strategy for the Democrats, it's almost like a defacto suicide. I've got zero confidence in Nancy Pelosi and there is nothing in her performance convincing me that she is a truly qualified leader. So the Pelosi problem also needs to be fixed and fast.

Because with Pelosi calling the shots, and the Republicans willing to wait two years while tearing down Obama, we might be stuck with a government in paralysis. Two years from now, if the Republicans gain back seats in Congress, they might become even more emboldened and win another national election. God help us!

Still, I think Obama and his team need to learn from this debacle and work strategically to win over the American public. And they can start by explaining the details of the Stimulus Plan.

You know I kinda thought things would be different. I thought Congress would try working together with the Obama team. But, it's clear the Republicans are sore losers. And with Pelosi running things, I'm less optimistic than I want to be about America pulling itself out of this mess.

And frankly, the more I learn about the stimulus package, the more I feel they should have sold it more effectively to the American people. Because they are throwing around big blocks of money on stuff and saying it's going to lubricate the economy and create jobs. But there's really no particular messaging and marketing to the bill. And it's reported to be full of non-job creation funding for pet Democratic issues. I agree with Chris Matthews, host of Hardball. Obama should have asked Congress to create a clean bill rather than one likely to cause division. And he should have marketed it better.

Approaching the Transforming Economy

We are amidst a painful economic transformation affecting every facet of life for citizens rich and poor. A financial shift, political shift, and a consciousness shift are occurring simultaneously. And at the intersection of these shifts there is pain.

Economic pain, especially for people, for business, for families, and for our national psyche. With sudden, uncontrollable changes in the value of people's income, homes, 401K plans, combined with the loss of jobs, there are feelings of despair among families of good people. Politically, we're cleaning out the remnants of the Bush Administration and feeling the karma for their very bad deeds. And we're shifting into a higher consciousness and more compassionate approach to governance with the election of Barack Obama and a shifting power base in Congress.

In this transforming economy, everyone I know has been affected. The advice for myself and others:

1. See the future through optimistic eyes.
2. Feel that your situation will improve.
3. Visualize your goals, and recite them aloud morning and night.
4. Pursue your dreams with increased focus and vigor.
5. Attach personal passion to the success you want to create.
6. Feel the affluence you aspire for happening now.
7. Hold unwavering faith in the eventuality that your dreams will come true and success will dawn.

For those who believe in a positive way, every step you take will be the right one. Even as those around lose their faith and suffer simply by loss of faith, you can stay above it by feeling all will be OK and never let fear grip you.

Is this a test of faith? Perhaps. Stand tall!