Fox News and President Obama

David Carr, in a New York Times tried to give President Obama a little motherly advice about not responding to provocations from various Fox News sources.

Don't respond to these attacks, Mr. Carr advised Mr. Obama. Your great strength is your ability to exude "a certain cool confidence."

It's like being on a basketball court and your opponents are trash talking and everyone knows these trash talkers "Would not find much space for rent in Mr. Obama's head."

Cute imagery, but wrong.

On the basketball court, you can answer, with your own actions, by scoring and smiling wordlessly, so everyone in the arena can hear it: Take that sucker.

"Mr. Obama has also shown a consistent ability to disarm or at least engage his critics."

Actually, not.

The real history is Mr. Obama did not have to engage or disarm his critics during the campaign. He knew this. He did not respond and he leaned back against the ropes like Muhammad Ali, and let his opponents wail away at him and become arm weary. He did not have to throw a punch because George Bush had already handed him the election before any of the arguments began.

"I got this," Mr. Obama reassured his supporters who urged him to throw some counter punches.

Mr. Obama could real a poll. He could see the economy tanking and he knew it didn't matter how much Sarah Palin taunted him. People were not listening to her or to John McCain. They were looking at their accounts and their mortgage payments.

But those factors which are external to all arguments are no longer working in Mr. Obama's favor.

Now it's his economy and his budget and his financial crisis and his healthcare program.

He cannot win with Rope a Dope any more.

Now he has to show he can fight for what he believes in.

Truth is, Fox News is no more partisan than newspapers in the early years of our Republic, which were the voice of one political party or another. There was a Federalist press which attacked Jefferson relentlessly, portraying him as a rum soaked anarchist. Democratic papers savaged Abraham Lincoln.

The whole notion of a dispassionate, objective news organization with no axe to grind, a neutral reporter of the Truth, is actually fairly new.

I'm no historian, but I suspect the current ideal of a neutral press dates back only to Walter Cronkite, who appeared to report the news from Viet Nam with great neutrality. Of course, CBS news ran nightly videos of American soldiers expressing their disgust at the whole idea of even being in Viet Nam. But it was not CBS News saying those things. It was the soldiers.

The pretense of "objectivity" is, of course, a basic form of dishonesty.

At least if you let your listener know what your bias is, the listener can say to himself, "Okay, I'll hear this point of view and I'll look elsewhere for the other side."

If President Obama fails, it is more likely he'll fail because he could not man up and say, "I think I'm right about this and this is what we are going to do."

As dismal a Presidency as Ronald Reagan's at least had the virtue of leadership--leadership in the wrong direction. But at least you knew where he stood. "The nine scariest words in the world, 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'" That's what Reagan said. He was the anti-government, government can't do anything well President. And under his governing practice, he proved his point.

Mr. Obama was a savvy candidate. He knew all he had to do was say nothing and ride the waves of discontentment to the Presidency.

But now he has govern.

For my money, that means not putting Olympia Snow in charge of your health care plan. That means saying, "The Republicans are in the pocket of the insurance industry. They do not want any change to their cozy, privileged world. We've tried to include them in the process of change but their only desire is to obstruct and prevent change. So much for bipartisanship. We tried that. Now we are going to do what we were elected to do. If we are wrong, then vote us out."

And while he's at it, he ought to say over and over, "The Republicans tried to kill Social Security under President Bush. They called it 'Privatization,' and what they meant was taking your safe money out of the government coffers and giving it to the stock market. And they fought Medicare. Now they are fighting health care. Why? Because they care more about money and keeping money for their friends and for themselves than they care about you. I'm sorry to have to say it, but that's the truth."

And while he's at it, he ought to single out John Boehner and that nut from South Carolina and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, not necessarily by their names but by quoting them, for special ridicule.

Why should this be left to Jon Stewart?

If he could do that, he could energize his supporters and put those right wingers on the defensive.

Those who oppose health care changes are either ignorant and frightened or simply selfish and satisfied and President Obama ought to be the one saying that. He ought to be throwing the punches, not relying others to do it and playing the nice guy.

We need more than a nice guy right now.

He cannot depend on me to say it.

Nobody reads my blog, anyway.

But he's got an open mike. He has to use it, not just hum along.