President Obama's summer was no vacation

The unofficial end of summer is upon us. I've spent too long away from IrvsEyeView. So here are a few quick thoughts for Labor Day Weekend, 2009.

Bob Dylan's "Idiot Wind" might be the right theme song for this summer of discontent. President Obama's inability to convince the public that health care reform is in the public's own interest has been driven by a coordinated campaign of exaggeration, lies, personal attacks, and a lot of "wind," from some conservative critics. As predicted, the media focused--at least at first--less on substance and more on the rhetoric and intensity of misinformed town hall protesters who shouted down members of congress, hung them in effigy, and carried guns to meetings because they could. Legitimate questions about costs of reform and details of any overhaul need to be answered, but the outrageous claims of death panels, and impending socialist transformation of the nation, stuck a little too easily for the good of the country. President Obama has a chance to right the ship of health care reform, when he addresses Congress and the nation, on Wednesday, but he will have to be more persuasive.

Most disturbing in all the noise was a lack of enough reasonable voices on the right to bring the discussion back to reality. Sen. McCain courageously confronted critics, as he did during the campaign, when some, like parrots, repeated the most outrageous claims about our elected president. Few others have had the will or desire to offer a voice of reason, when the most ridiculous charges about President Obama began to catch fire.

In this atmosphere, the president's plan to speak to school children about--in the words of CBS's Bob Schieffer--"staying in school and off dope," became the summer of discontent's latest presidential PR casualty. Convincing parents that a presidential pep talk is not political indoctrination has now become the current distraction.

Most disturbing about all the noise and voices of protest--some legitimate, but all tainted by the outrageous fringe--is that the economy continues to be a problem. This volatile mixture of high unemployment, and the scapegoating of the president and by extension the whole government, sows the seeds of violence and unrest. President Obama inherited enormous problems that are beginning to show signs of improvement, but he is barely getting started. For him to succeed and the nation to once again prosper, he will have to have help. The reasonable right ought to mobilize its most articulate voices to serve the proper purpose of the loyal opposition; differing philosophies and approaches to problems make our system work. Hyperbole, rooted in personal attacks, makes any reasoned arguments that follow appear suspect.

To start, conservative critics of the president ought to look at how William F. Buckley, Jr., marginalized the John Birch Society, decades ago, when its rhetoric, and thinking, became unhinged. Then the president himself needs to sound a concise and clear message that resonates with more Americans. Mr. Obama's reasoned rhetoric must be simplified and more directly speak to the most pressing needs of the people, largely economic these days. And that rhetoric must be rooted in action. All the talk of getting banks to lend money and creating jobs, green and all other colors, has to bear fruit. Then, addressing health care concerns will be less vulnerable to the Idiot Winds that blow most strongly when times are tough.