He's Ba[ra]ck

He’s back. The tall, skinny guy I voted for in November 2008. You know, the one from Illinois, who brought to mind comparisons with that other tall, skinny president from the Prairie State. Yes, he’s back, and not a moment too soon.

With his health care legislation adopted a week ago, President Obama managed in just a few days to issue new protections for mortgage defaulters; to negotiate a new arms control treaty with Russia; to confront—in person—Afghan president Harmid Karzai on corruption and mismanagement; and to appoint 15 new government officials, whose nominations had been blocked for months by Senate Republicans.

Instead of yet further efforts to work with his recalcitrant opponents in the misguided hope of bipartisanship, Barack Obama seized the power bestowed on him on November 4, 2008, and restored his promise to work on behalf of ordinary Americans.

Now, can he build on this momentum and back the cause of financial reform? To do so, he must be willing to take on his friends in Wall Street and not worry that they won’t like him anymore. And he needs to call out the Republicans for where they stand: on the side of big banks and unregulated financial gluttons.

He’s moving in the right direction. The health care legislation, however flawed, signaled a government that finally recognized and acted on the needs of every-day citizens. Financial reform needs this same level of recognition and passion on the part of President Obama.

Let’s hope that he keeps his boxing gloves on and doesn’t retreat into that passive place of his that doesn’t do any of us any good.