HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN? – AT 8:18 P.M. ET:  Well, not really.  However, the Washington Post is suggesting that President Obama is back on track, fresh from victories, and dreaming of becoming the giant he knows he is:

On Tuesday, with audience members shouting "fired up!" and not a protester in sight, Obama signed a sweeping higher education funding overhaul into law along with the last portion of his health-care bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Jill Biden joined him onstage for what amounted to a Democratic love-fest...

...It may be too soon to tell whether the conventional wisdom -- that Obama changed the course of his presidency with the passage of his health-care bill -- turns out to be correct. But with its completion, finalized Tuesday, the president has finally turned to other things, and is allowing himself to enjoy the moment of triumph, albeit in his understated way.

Yes, understated and modest.  Just so modest.  Yeah, right.

"What has gotten overlooked amid all the hoopla, all the drama, of the last week is what happened in education -- when a great battle pitching the interests of the banks and the financial institutions against the interests of the students finally came to an end," Obama said. "This week, we can rightly say the foundation on which America's foundation will be built is stronger than it was one year ago."

Huh?  Can you figure that out? 

Actually, the student-loan reform program, inserted into the health-care bill, was probably a pretty good idea.  But what the president doesn't seem to get is that his methods are turning off many Americans.  There was no debate allowed over the student-loan reform, and even Dick Morris agrees that it will improve the student-loan program.  But members of Congress have the right to debate these things, to offer amendments, to enhance the final bill. 

We used to say, many decades ago, that Joe McCarthy's cause was right, but his methods were awful.  That was the rallying cry of the conservatives who eventually led the fight to bring him down.   The same can be said of Obama.  Sometimes we can embrace his goals.  But his street-style practice of politics is not helping his cause.  You can't put a halo over yourself one minute, and replace it with a dagger the next, without people noticing.  And people have noticed.

So, let the president have his moment of celebration.  But maybe it should also be a time for reflection.  He's president of the United States, not a ward healer on the South Side.

March 30, 2010