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After eight years of infrequent press conferences from a President who had trouble stringing two coherent sentences together and constantly had me worried he might start World War III (well he did start one war) with some off-the-wall remark, it is a pleasure to listen to a President-elect who can speak intelligently about the issues, inject a sense of humor when called for and maneuver adroitly when the press tries to back him into a corner.
Analogies with FDR
As you may remember from a previous essay, after Franklin Roosevelt’s election in 1932 in the midst of the worsening economic crisis, talks took place between representatives of the incoming and outgoing administrations. In the beginning Roosevelt and his staff were open to dealing with the crisis immediately, for they knew that even the months between the election and when FDR officially would take power were uncertain and that if something was not done, people would suffer.
Yet, unbelievably Hoover insisted that the negotiations must be on his terms. According to Arthur Schlesinger, jr.’s account of the incident, Roosevelt felt that agreeing to Hoover’s terms would mean accepting “the whole major program of the Republican Administration” [are you listening Nancy "AIG" Pelosi?] and “the abandonment of the so-called New Deal.” FDR was so angry at Hoover he broke off negotiations even though others tried to bring the two men together to deal with the crisis.
Barack Obama finds himself in a similar situation, but also one with a Democratic Congress and a House Speaker who seems to think she can set policy without consulting with the President. Several times the press tried to trap Obama into a conflict with Bush, but with the skill of a seasoned President he side-stepped the mines they tried to plant in front of him.
Obama would neither endorse nor criticize what Bush was doing. In the second paragraph of his prepared remarks he made this quite clear:
The United States has only one government and one President, and until January 20th of next year, that government is the current Administration.
As for Pelosi, her off-the-wall and frankly insulting press conference may have been one of the reasons Obama felt obligated to hold his meeting with the press the day after Pelosi. Pelosi had attempted to outline some economic proposals which Obama in effect slapped down by issuing the specifics of his plan to deal with the crisis.
A Plan
By now everyone is well aware of Obama’s plans, but with my emphasis on principles I was as much interested in hearing about the values that would lie behind his plan as I was in the specific proposals, which no doubt will receive further changes between now and Inauguration Day and also will probably be modified by Congress. In addition, as with FDR, no one can predict what the nation will look like the day Barack Obama puts his hand on the Bible and swears to uphold the Constitution.
In his prepared remarks he stated:
We need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provides relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear.
We must also remember that the financial crisis is increasingly global and requires a global response.
In a backhanded comment on the bailout bill’s problems alluded to in the previous essay, he added:
We will review the implementation of this Administration’s financial program to ensure that our government’s efforts are achieving their central goal of stabilizing financial markets while protecting taxpayers, helping homeowners and not unduly rewarding the management of financial firms that are receiving government assistance.
Leading from Principles
But it was in his answers to reporter’s questions that his principles really became central. As one who has written for several years now about the need for leaders who lead from principles, I was gratified to hear Obama evoke his values several times. As I listened to the press conference it became clearer to me that Barack Obama is not a triangulator, but instead is someone who is guided by values.
I must admit I have come slowly to this point. This press conference was extremely important because now Barack Obama did not need to hold back on certain things or walk a certain path to insure his election. During the campaign many, including me, worried if he would be another triangulator in the Clinton mold. This press conference would be America’s first chance to really see the character of their new leader.
The key phrase came for me at the very end of the press conference in answer to the last question in which a reporter asked if he was going to seek a tax increase for upper income Americans. This was Obama at his best and a moment that gives me some hope he may be not just a good but a great President.
Rather than launch into discussing raises taxes for the rich, Obama used his answer to again highlight his tax-cut plan for ordinary Americans. Then at the end of his remarks came a phrase that literally sent shivers up my spine:
But, understand, the goal of my plan is to provide tax relief to families that are struggling, but also to boost the capacity of the economy to grow from the bottom up.
Those words, “to boost the capacity of the economy to grow from the bottom up” are virtually a direct quote from Franklin Roosevelt’s famous “Forgotten Man” speech and echo similar words made by Harry Truman and Woodrow Wilson.
From the Bottom Up
I cannot stress enough how important it was that Obama evoked that principle and especially that he made it the final remark of his press conference. All he had outlined before about plans to help the auto industry and people struggling with mortgage foreclosures were important policy statements, but this final sentence was the most important of his press conference.
It showed that no matter what might happen with specific initiatives; Barack Obama will lead from the bottom up not the top down. Here are Franklin Roosevelt’s words:
These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid. [My emphasis.]
The Importance of Obama’s Words
By directly evoking Roosevelt’s words, Barack Obama signaled several things. First, the days of top-down economics are over. For two decades this country has proceeded under the assumption that if we give tax breaks to the rich, the money will trickle down to the rest of us. Well it has trickled, one tiny drop at a time, until that trickle has all but come to a stop.
Call it “trickle-down economics,” “Reaganomics” or whatever epithet you can think of, it has lead this nation into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, just as similar policies caused the depressions of 1893 and 1932. Obama was telling us that if he has anything to say about it, America is about to undergo a huge shift in the principles that guide our economy.
The second thing Obama’s remark signaled was that by evoking Franklin Roosevelt’s language, he was tying himself and his administration to Roosevelt. There was one other remark, which people also may have missed, that showed this new administration intends to model its efforts on the New Deal.
At the beginning of the question session, he was asked about meeting with George W. Bush. In the very last paragraph of his answer (you know it’s nice to be able to refer to press conference remarks as if they were spoken in real English), Obama stated:
Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a while and think practically about what will actually work to move the economy forward.
As any high-school history student knows, this emphasis on what will work was one of the prime features of the New Deal.
But it was the third and most important dimension of Obama’s remarks that should make everyday Americans feel optimistic about our new President, for by talking about the “bottom up” he was talking about us. For once decisions would be made on the basis of principles that favored what has become the contemporary version of FDR’s forgotten American.
That Obama would insert these remarks at the very close of his press conference in way that suggests they come from the deepest part of his soul should have us all breathing a little easier.
The People behind the Remarks
Behind Barack Obama stood a team of his economic advisors. Some of them had to make you wonder. There was one of the architects of the repeal of Glass-Steagall, former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Paul Volcker, who helped to weaken Glass-Steagall. Yet there was also Robert Reich, who has been a voice against top-down economics for decades and former Democratic Congressman David Bonior, who served as John Edwards’ campaign manager.
There was former Securities and Exchange Commission member Roel Campos, who pushed the Republican-dominated board to penalize companies for securities violations, and former SEC chair William Donaldson, whose stormy tenure was marked by his championing hedge fund regulation, mutual fund governance and stiffer corporate penalties. And, of course, there is America’s favorite billionaire Warren Buffett, the one financial wizard who seems to have weathered the financial crisis in reasonably good shape and who once spoke out against the Bush tax cuts.
What this group suggests is that Barack Obama will seek out ideas from a variety of sources. Yes, I would have liked to see more mavericks and fewer Wall Street types, but we must also remember that at this point Wall Street also needs to feel some confidence in the new President.
The Implications
Even if one does not rejoice over Obama’s committee, that one statement goes a long way towards lessening fears that this President will govern from expediency rather than from values. So this observer would give him an “A” for his first press conference and looks forward to more of them.
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