OH DEAR, OH DEAR – AT 9:23 A.M. ET:  In the last few days President Obama has compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln.   In a way, it's a step down from the days when his delirious groupies were comparing him to the deity, but King and Lincoln will do.  Apparently, though, Obama believes that three's the charm, as he contemplartes adding another name to the list.  From the Daily Caller:

President Barack Obama is eyeing a 2012 campaign modeled on President Harry Truman’s 1948 successful re-election campaign against Congress. First, however, the White House will send to Capitol Hill an assortment of ‘economy-boosting’ legislation in a package that may include a major overhaul of the tax code.

“I’ll be putting forward, when they come back in September, a very specific plan to boost the economy, to create jobs, and to control our deficit,” Obama told a friendly audience at a Decorah, Minnesota campaign-event on Monday.

“My attitude is, get it done … [but] if they don’t get it done, then we’ll be running against a Congress that’s not doing anything for the American people, and the choice will be very stark and will be very clear.”

COMMENT:  Harry Truman did indeed run against the "do-nothing" Republican Congress.  The charge was false, as Congress had passed a remarkable package of bills, including the legislation that shaped our defense establishment in the Cold War.  But we were in a recession, so the charge resonated.

A new Gallup Poll puts Congress's approval rating at a mere 13%, so Obama's strategy may make sense.  However, there's a difference between Truman and Obama, and that's exactly Obama's problem – that difference.  He ain't Harry.  Truman wasn't particularly liked, but he was a fighter, and Americans admired that.   By contrast, Truman's opponent in 1948 was Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, who'd also been the Republican candidate in 1944 in a losing campaign against FDR.   In 1948, Dewey kind of sat around waiting to be crowned king, as almost every pundit predicted he would be.  Because of his pencil mustache, some came to describe him as "the man on the wedding cake."

The king never got to give his speech.  Feisty Harry won after a stunning whistlestop campaign through America.  The pundits punted, and Tom Dewey faded into history. 

Obama, like Truman, isn't particularly popular, but I doubt if he has Truman's fight in him.  He has more of Dewey's imperiousness.  But it will all depend on the Republican candidate.

August 16, 2011