Will Obama Go Big? [View All]

[jefferson_dem]

Will Obama Go Big?
Jun 14 2010, 3:09 PM ET | Comment

Tomorrow night, in his 20 minute address to the nation, will President Obama go big? Or will he go small? Will he use the auspicious moment to argue for the imperative of carbon pricing, or will he greet the nation by announcing new regulations on part of the energy sector?

The President has said that he would rather be a one termer who gets big things done than he would avoid the burden of presidential leadership. He's given one speech on climate change recently. That speech was ... a speech. A good speech, but a speech. No follow through, publicly or privately. If he means what he says, he will Go Big.

A senior administration official to whom I put the question this morning responded that Obama recognizes that the moment to assert his command over the disaster that is the BP oil spill has passed. Another official said Obama will use the time to "go Big. That's where he does best."

Details are not protuberant from the West Wing. It may well be that Obama has not yet decided how he wants to use his first Oval Office address. It is clear that the American people want to hear something from him. The White House believes that they don't want a lament. They certainly won't mind a little blame-casting. Officials are preparing new rules for the energy sector, but it's hard to imagine that Obama would borrow our ears to tell us about new regulations, chapter and verse.

If Obama goes big, there is really only one way he can attempt it: he must call on Congress to put a price on carbon by the end of the year. The pivot from gushing oil to climate change is at once harder than it seems and blindingly obvious. Oil is polluting the Gulf; it's not raising temperatures. The transition to a more ecologically friendly economy will require carbon creation. It will also require economic sacrifice.

<SNIP>

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/06/will-obama-go-big/58123/