Obama has had opportunities to rally Americans

Stuart Weiss, Las Vegas

Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

After President Barack Obama surrendered in signing the debt-ceiling legislation, I was angry. Then I asked myself what could he, or anyone, do when an adversary threatens the public weal. What if retirees needing Social Security to eat didn’t get it? Obama might have used the 14th Amendment, but that would have brought a constitutional crisis.

Obama’s problems began with his weak inaugural address. He did not stress the depths of the crisis in 2009 or that it must be fought as if we were at war. He did not stress speedy action as Franklin Roosevelt did in his inaugural address at the bottom of the Great Depression or Winston Churchill after Dunkirk.

In terms many will understand, Obama has been an order clerk rather than a salesman. A clerk accepts payment for merchandise customers want. A salesman gets customers to believe his product will feel better, look better and wear longer than a competitor’s. He might well tell a story in so doing. And if successful, he will build his business.

Unfortunately, Obama did not begin his tenure with a stirring call to action that might have built support for a stimulus that would maintain state jobs and upgrade and enhance infrastructure — all the while being big enough to do it. He did not ride to the rescue with a story about disciplining the rascals responsible for our problems and setting the stage for a new, better beginning.