The View From The Plantation Porch

The family and I have been on Nantucket this past week and a half.  It is an important place for the Wonderful Wife and me.  We were married here, our kids were baptized here, we spend as much of each summer here as we can.

But it is a place swarming with the rich and kinda famous.  At the Fourth of July festivities, we walked by Joe Scarborough and David Gregory.  For some reason, if you work at NBC, you have to have a place here.  We see multitudes of people who are obviously doing great economically right now, whether they be the factotums from NBC or the myrmidons of Wall Street.  From the intricately carved and sculpted faces of aging matrons to people plopping down $32 for kids boxer shorts from Vineyard Vines, this is one of the seats of the new Gilded Age.

When the jobs report came out Friday, it should have scared the crap out of everyone in the country.  It should have stampeded a deal to get the debt ceiling raised - cleanly - so that we can remove this great cloud of uncertainty from the world economic stage.  It should have created a clarion call for a legitimate jobs bill.

Obama said the right things in his Twitter conference and his presser Friday.

But he should have been saying them for the past year.

I'm not an FDL nutjob, who thinks Obama's awful.  But I worry about the capture of his vision by the Washington Bubble.  I think he tries to remain connected to average American concerns, and he certainly comes from a perspective of middle class Americans more than most of our Presidents.  And maybe he's obsessed by the debt because he really thinks it's more important long term.

He admitted in his Twitter conference that he underestimated the depth of the recession, especially in the job market.  The stimulus bill did a good job of saving the auto industry, creating a bump in demand to halt the tumble and bridging state government budgets until 2011.  In other words, it would have been fine if this was 1991.

But it's not, and it wasn't enough.  And he's not going to get a job's bill through the Congress.

But he has to appear to be fighting for one.

The people out here in Nantucket don't give a damn about 9.2% unemployment.  All it means to them is they can pay their landscaper less.  These powerful and wealthy people don't need to worry about 2012, because no matter who gets elected, they will still be rich.

But at some point, there will be a breaking point.  At some point those 9.2% and the 16% underemployed are going to find a leader who will speak for them.

By temperament and inclination, Obama should be that guy.

I've been saying ever since I started this blog that Obama needs to find his inner populist.  The new media are going to keep searching for new Casey Anthony, the new Chandra Levy, the new Natalie Hollowell.  He has to change the conversation.

Obama has to pierce the disregard we have for the New Serfdom.  He has to lead the middle class to a new economy.

It will require him to get out of his comfort zone.

Which is as it should be, for millions of Americans haven't been comfortable for years now.