Word: ahead
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...Officially, the White House is keeping the speech under wraps, with spokesman Robert Gibbs saying repeatedly that he is not going to "get ahead" of the President. But there is, in many ways, little left to hide, since Obama has spent much of the past few weeks making clear both his legislative goals and his strategy for accomplishing them. So as you settle in tonight to watch the prolonged legislative applause, realizing that, like 25 million Americans, you will be denied your Tuesday night American Idol fix, here are five things to look...
...When it comes to the week ahead, Obama is likely to focus his anti-Bush message on the rather technical subject of budget gimmickry. Obama previewed this line of reasoning on Monday, when he kicked off a fiscal summit at the White House. "For too long, our budget process in Washington has been an exercise in deception," Obama announced. "We do ourselves no favors by hiding the truth about what we spend." In specific terms, this means accounting for expenses like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as natural disasters as part of the normal budget process...
...much of this ambiguity is likely to remain after Tuesday's speech, Obama will be obligated to explain how he views the ongoing international violence and shifting threats. Expect the President to combine a continued determination for victory against terrorist threats with a cautious explanation of the difficult challenges ahead. President Bush did himself great political harm by repeatedly offering rosy projections about the war in Iraq that later proved to be unfounded. Obama, who inherited Bush's military engagements, is not likely to repeat that mistake...
...Resisting of Cassandra Creep For weeks, Obama has reminded the nation of the fix it's in. He has spoken of the risk of downward "spiral," deepening "crises," potential economic "catastrophe" and the "big challenge" ahead. At the time, such language served a political purpose: to direct public pressure toward Congress to pass the stimulus, while making clear that the problems were inherited. But too much grim talk runs the risk of becoming self-fulfilling. As White House economists will explain, the worst fears of an economic spiral involve a self-perpetuating collapse in consumer confidence that leads...
...come through this." Obama will almost certainly demonstrate that sentiment on Tuesday night, if for no other reason than it is what every President in modern memory has done when addressing a joint session of Congress - reflect upon the current challenges, while promising that America's greatest days lie ahead...