Small Ball

And now President Obama is beginning to play small ball.

Not good.

And What is the Change?

Chris Hedges, a former New York Times journalist recently published a piece about the "branding" of President Obama, and how his presidency may be about maintaining the brand of "change" rather than actually bringing about change.

You can read the article by clicking here.

It certainly is true that this Administration has tapped into needs for a certain type of image, which apparently have been pent-up for 8 years.  Carefully staged and crafted photo-ops of this president, his wife, children, and the vice-president give us images of guys who love their wives and kids, a woman invested in organic foods, and adorable, well loved children.  There is even a picture of President Obama teasing Caroline Kennedy about the famous picture of her brother peeking through the president's desk.  We have Brand Obama, cool, hip, caring, or what are the new words...transparent and empathetic.

But the real meat is in what is being done.  And here is where Hedges takes aim.  Of course the relationships between politics and the financial institutions is an obvious place to hammer home that while the brand may change from Bush to Obama, the results which impact average Americans have not changed.

It's interesting that the current generations, Baby Boomers to the current crop of young people, have been subjected to sophisticated advertising campaigns for their life times.  You would think we could see through all this branding, demand quality and authenticity.  But we don't.

If we want change, I think, we need to begin by looking at ourselves and how we respond to the "branding" campaigns.  Including the most important one right now: Brand Obama.

The Day Before

It's a gorgeous day here.  The sun is out, it's sort of warm.  People are taking the day off for Martin Luther King Day.  It's the day before the quadrennial American event: inauguration of a president.  

Tomorrow, a candidate who based his campaign on hope and change is sworn in.  It is America's first African-American president (however, not our first from Harvard a fact we Yalie's are slightly grumpy about).  At noon eastern standard time we will witness history.

I have talked a lot about the unimaginably hard problems that need immediate attention.  In fact, it seems Obama and Bush sliced up some territory after the election, with Obama taking on the economy and Bush still trying to wrangle international issues such as the war in Gaza.  But tomorrow, it all falls upon President Obama's shoulders.

In Washington, D.C. and many cities across the nation, people will be indulging in celebrations.  Hollywood stars and "very important people" are in DC for the see-and-be-seen events beginning on Sunday.  

But the real work has already begun.  Aside from the carefully scripted trips to Arlington National Cemetery, Walter Reed Army Hospital, painting a children's homeless shelter, the work of a president in jawboning banks to open up credit from money they received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to cajoling Congressmen to forgo their pet projects and throw their support behind more long term economic stimulus, is difficult.  It is work that we will not see but hopefully will begin to understand the impacts.  Symbolic acts are great set-ups for a re-election that is essentially two years from now, but we really need more than symbolic acts.  

Tomorrow will be history.  Wednesday will  be work.