Jay Cost: Blue Smoke and Mirrors

Jay Cost is a staff writer for The Weekly Standard.

...It was at about the same point in his administration that Jimmy Carter gave the so-called "malaise speech," which was originally meant to be a game changer for the administration. Carter had invited scores of party leaders up to Camp David to seek their advice on how to rescue his troubled presidency. Inflation had clocked in at 10.3 percent over the previous year. The price of a barrel of oil had increased by about 50 percent. While the unemployment rate was relatively low (under 6 percent), inflation was eating away at real incomes, leaving people extremely pessimistic about the future, and about the president, whose job approval was by that point in the low 30s. Meanwhile, a tax revolt was brewing on Carter's right, and, on his left, Ted Kennedy was sounding more and more like a presidential candidate.

Carter wanted to get back to what had made him such a political success three years earlier--forging a connection with people who had grown tired of party politics. This was one of the major goals of the "malaise" speech, although he never used the word "malaise" in it. Instead, Carter bemoaned, "the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation." It was classic Carter: part politician, part therapist, part preacher.

This is exactly what Team Obama is offering up right now--blue smoke and mirrors. President Obama lost public confidence in the first two years of his tenure, and Americans responded by filling Congress with dozens of new Republicans, ending the (short) era of liberal governance. Obama does not have the disposition to meet Republicans halfway, and, at any rate, his political advisors seem to have convinced him that demagoguing the GOP is the better approach. So, the president is emphasizing political theater, endeavoring to create the impression that the economy is in better shape than it is (or at least that he is not to blame), that he has a realistic plan to handle the deficit, and that he is in strong shape for reelection....