Graphic by Swopa

Graphic by Swopa

Teddy spotted a very interesting Rahm quote in the middle of a WaPo story on the GOP scrambling to take advantage of the Democrats’ vulnerability this year:

Gone is the bravado of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who a year ago in his farewell address to his House Democratic colleagues predicted that 2010 would resemble 1934. That year, for the third consecutive cycle, Democrats picked up seats as the public rallied behind President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal.”

Coupled with his “never let a crisis go to waste” comment, it’s clear that Rahm understood that Obama’s enormous challenges also represented enormous opportunity.  Unfortunately, he either didn’t realize that opportunity itself is not sufficient, or failed to notice that FDR did not save the country and attain incredible popularity and power by bailing out corporate interests at the expense of everyone else.

FDR used the state of crisis to immediately push through substantial financial reforms and the massive job creation programs of the New Deal.  Obama covered the Wall Street gamblers’ losses and then allowed “fiscally responsible” Republicans and Blue Dogs to water down an already mediocre stimulus package into something almost completely ineffective.  The financial reform bill is crawling along and seems to get weaker by the day.

FDR increased employment significantly in the first two years of his term.  Obama… not so much so far, and prosperity does not appear to be around the corner. Instead we’ve had to settle for Obama and his team assuring us that the economy is recovering but jobs are merely a “lagging indicator” – their complacency in stark contrast to FDR’s near-maniacal sense of urgency.

In short, FDR took dramatic action to benefit ordinary citizens, and achieved dramatic, tangible results.  Obama has not, and has not.

Yes, it’s true that the 2008 meltdown was not as dire as the Great Depression, and FDR’s GOP was not yet using the filibuster to make 60 the new 51, but Obama had the chance to take a page from Dubya’s book and use the crisis to pressure and shame moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats into going along with substantive stimulus and reforms.  Instead of bogus cries of “terror terror terror!”, he could have used genuine cries of “crisis crisis crisis” or “jobs jobs jobs!”  The only legislation that got that treatment was the TARP bailout.

I suppose it’s possible that Obama took this approach all on his own, with Rahm pleading and begging with him every step of the way not to squander this historical opportunity, but I’m having a hard time picturing it.  Maybe Rahm genuinely believed that half-measures and happy talk would be enough, that the American people wouldn’t notice that they’re getting crumbs while the corporations that ruined our economy and health care system are getting richly rewarded for our trouble.

Whatever the plan was, it didn’t work.  Now the Democratic base is thoroughly demoralized, and all that crisis passion is flowing back to the Republicans.  As Paul Krugman puts it:

[T]here’s a populist rage building in this country, and President Obama’s kid-gloves treatment of the bankers has put Democrats on the wrong side of this rage. If Congressional Democrats don’t take a tough line with the banks in the months ahead, they will pay a big price in November.

It’s not enough just to be handed an opportunity, you have to seize it and take it in the direction it tells you to.  And I fear that the Democrats are about to learn that a misspent opportunity is worse than no opportunity at all.