Democrats, Snap Out of Your 'Malaise'

They've accomplished much but are losing all the arguments
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 17, 2010 1:06 PM CDT
Democrats, Snap Out of Your 'Malaise'
President Obama is photographed after delivering a televised address from the Oval Office Tuesday.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

EJ Dionne raises the dreaded specter of "malaise" afflicting Democrats, with a quick qualification: "President Obama is not Jimmy Carter, not even close," he writes in the Washington Post. His speech was "good and sensible" but not a "home run." And that's Dionne's point—Obama and the Democrats shouldn't need a home run given all they've accomplished, and yet they're "petrified, uncertain and hesitant." Snap out of it, he writes.

"From Plaquemines Parish to Wall Street, we are seeing what happens when government takes too hands-off an approach to private economic actors. Yet the GOP is managing to sell the idea that the big issue in this election should be ... government spending. Professor Obama and his allies ought to be ashamed of this. The cure for malaise is to have a self-confident sense of purpose, and to act boldly in its pursuit." (More Democrats stories.)

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