WASHINGTON--It's now official: So in vogue are attacks on President Obama that even his proclamation calling the nation to a day of Thanksgiving has become the focus of criticism.
Presidential Thanksgiving messages are a routine bit of executive prose that most attentive citizens happily ignore in this moment of national gratitude. But the sky-is-falling mood that now pervades Obama commentary couldn't let this 435-word document pass without a few sniffs of disapproval.
The Gawker Web site called it an "uninspiring first effort from our most literary president" and expressed hope that he would spend "a little more time on it next year." Politico damned it with faint analysis -- it was "basic" and "brief" and "tread lightly" to avoid controversy.
Mostly, the message reiterated familiar Obama themes of diversity, community and service. The opening line referred to Thanksgiving as "a harvest celebration between European settlers and indigenous communities," and Obama called attention to "the contributions of Native Americans, who helped the early colonists survive their first harsh winter and continue to strengthen our Nation."
The holiday was also "a time for us to renew our bonds with one another, and we can fulfill that commitment by serving our communities and our Nation throughout the year."
Maybe they'll surprise me, but I'm willing to bet that a right-wing talk jock near you will soon be declaring the "indigenous communities" reference as "un-American," and the call to service as yet another shout-out to "socialism." We'll also hear that the document never uses the word "prayer," and that its one nod to God is in a quotation from George Washington (unless you count its mention of "houses of worship," and the "year of Our Lord" in the date).
Yes, I'm afraid things have gotten so vexed for Obama that Thanksgiving itself has become thankless. As it happens, that proclamation is revealing, but not necessarily in the ways his critics are likely to suggest.
You wonder if Obama will use this brief respite for reflection to ponder how, in a year, he has been transformed from a man once seen as capable of parting raging seas to the object of a terrible hatred on the right and mild disappointment among his allies. His opponents are on the march, his friends are grumpy.
Obama might fairly repair to the comforting thought that he inherited an unparalleled combination of disasters in the economy and foreign policy, and created such a surge of hope that he was expected, unrealistically, to have put everything right by now.
He will eventually get to claim a great victory on health care. He helped the country avoid financial catastrophe. And isn't he doing pretty well in the polls, given the afflictions of unemployment and other forms of economic carnage?
This line of thinking animates the White House. Obama's aides say it reflects a side of him that many have found attractive: a cool, detached confidence in the long-term that refuses to be disturbed by passing controversies and criticisms.
Yet there is a lesson for the president in the rote quality of his Thanksgiving proclamation that is significant only because it reveals Obama's underlying problem: What the document lacked was any sense of fighting spirit, any larger purpose, any gauntlet thrown down before his foes.
Contrast it to a Thanksgiving message Franklin D. Roosevelt offered in 1934 that was unapologetic in declaring his political goals. "Our sense of social justice has deepened," Roosevelt insisted. "We have been given vision to make new provisions for human welfare and happiness, and in a spirit of mutual helpfulness we have cooperated to translate vision into reality. ... We can truly say, 'What profiteth it a nation if it gain the whole world and lose its own soul.'"
A year later, Roosevelt was at it again. "We can be grateful," he wrote, "that selfish purpose of personal gain, at our neighbor's loss, less strongly asserts itself."
Roosevelt was no less pragmatic than Obama. He, too, was attacked demagogically as a "socialist," and was equally loathed by his adversaries.
Yet Roosevelt was a "happy warrior," a phrase he used about Al Smith that actually described FDR himself. He relished taking the fight to his enemies, once boasting: "I welcome their hatred."
Obama will have more to be grateful for next Thanksgiving if he accepts that his foes intend to fight him for the next three years. He needs to discover the joy that FDR took in fighting back, even in official documents that normally pass unnoticed.
E.J. Dionne, Jr. is the author of the recently published Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right. He is a Washington Post columnist, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a professor at Georgetown University.
(c) 2009, Washington Post Writers Group
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COMMENTS (1)
For those who, like myself, have frantically scoured the web searching for the full text of PBO's Turkey Talk yesterday, here it is (slice it yourselves, any way you care to. Cheers.):
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/weekly-address-president-obam...
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The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Weekly Address: President Obama Delivers Thanksgiving Greeting
WASHINGTON – In the midst of these challenging times for our nation, Pre ... view full comment
For those who, like myself, have frantically scoured the web searching for the full text of PBO's Turkey Talk yesterday, here it is (slice it yourselves, any way you care to. Cheers.):
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/weekly-address-president-obam...
---------------
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Weekly Address: President Obama Delivers Thanksgiving Greeting
WASHINGTON – In the midst of these challenging times for our nation, President Barack Obama used his weekly address to express gratitude to America’s military men and women and their families, and give thanks for our nation’s many blessings. He also discussed the steps his administration is taking to repair the damaged economy, so that next Thanksgiving, Americans across the country can give thanks for a brighter and stronger economy.
The audio and video will be available at 6:00am Thursday, November 26, 2009 at www.whitehouse.gov.
Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Thursday, November 26, 2009
For centuries, in peace and in war, in prosperity and in adversity, Americans have paused at this time of year to gather with loved ones and give thanks for life’s blessings. This week, we carry on this distinctly American tradition. All across our country, folks are coming together to spend time with family, to catch up with old friends, to cook and enjoy a big dinner – and maybe to watch a little football in between.
As always, we give thanks for the kindness of loved ones, for the joys of the previous year, and for the pride we feel in our communities and country. We keep in our thoughts and prayers the many families marking this Thanksgiving with an empty seat – saved for a son or daughter, or husband or wife, stationed in harm’s way. And we say a special thanks for the sacrifices those men and women in uniform are making for our safety and freedom, and for all those Americans who enrich the lives of our communities through acts of kindness, generosity and service.
But as much as we all have to be thankful for, we also know that this year millions of Americans are facing very difficult economic times. Many have lost jobs in this recession – the worst in generations. Many more are struggling to afford health care premiums and house payments, let alone to save for an education or retirement. Too many are wondering if the dream of a middle class life – that American Dream – is slipping away. It’s the worry I hear from folks across the country; good, hard-working people doing the best they can for their families – but fearing that their best just isn’t good enough. These are not strangers. They are our family, our friends, and our neighbors. Their struggles must be our concern.
That’s why we passed the Recovery Act that cut taxes for 95 percent of working people and for small businesses – and that extended unemployment benefits and health coverage for millions of Americans who lost their jobs in this turmoil. That’s why we are reforming the health care system so that middle-class families have affordable insurance that cannot be denied because of a pre-existing condition or taken away because you happen to get sick. We’ve worked to stem the tide of foreclosures and to stop the decline in home values. We’re making it easier to save for retirement and more affordable to send a son or daughter to college.
The investments we have made and tough steps we have taken have helped break the back of the recession, and now our economy is finally growing again. But as I said when I took office, job recovery from this crisis would not come easily or quickly. Though the job losses we were experiencing earlier this year have slowed dramatically, we’re still not creating enough new jobs each month to make up for the ones we’re losing. And no matter what the economists say, for families and communities across the country, this recession will not end until we completely turn that tide.
So we’ve made progress. But we cannot rest – and my administration will not rest – until we have revived this economy and rebuilt it stronger than before; until we are creating jobs and opportunities for middle class families; until we have moved beyond the cycles of boom and bust – of reckless risk and speculation – that led us to so much crisis and pain these past few years.
Next week, I’ll be meeting with owners of large and small businesses, labor leaders, and non-for-profits from across the country, to talk about the additional steps we can take to help spur job creation. I will work with the Congress to enact them quickly. And it is my fervent hope – and my heartfelt expectation – that next Thanksgiving we will be able to celebrate the fact that many of those who have lost their jobs are back at work, and that as a nation we will have come through these difficult storms stronger and wiser and grateful to have reached a brighter day.
Thank you, God bless you, and from my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.