E.J. Dionne :Obama shows he's a conciliator--and also willing to fight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012703906.html

There was an unexpected poignancy to the moment . Barack Obama, who once strode across the political landscape as a master of the persuasive arts, found himself needing to prove that mastery all over again.

In a single speech, his task was to: prevent the result of one special Senate election from calling into question his agenda or his power; respond to the discontent that poured forth from and after Massachusetts; reestablish his popular standing; and, in the process, both ignite the left and win back the center.

So, in his State of the Union address, Obama sought to pass a political math test by solving several simultaneous equations. He distanced himself from Wall Street but also reassured the businesses of Main Street. To independents, he insisted he still seeks a Washington that can work across partisan lines, but he also challenged Republicans to end their obstructive ways.

A speech he once hoped to give in celebration of a victory on health-care reform became instead a passionate plea to save his policy dream from political oblivion. "By the time I'm finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance," Obama declared. "Millions will lose it this year. Our deficit will grow. Premiums will go up. Patients will be denied the care they need. Small-business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether. I will not walk away from these Americans. And neither should the people in this chamber."


(snip)
Barack Obama had once hoped to be a conciliatory president who understood his philosophical adversaries. He is still that man, and much of his speech described ideas, especially in education and energy, that could well win support across ideological lines.

But it was clear that the Obama who addressed the nation on Wednesday also understood that he confronts a Republican Party that sees unflinching opposition as blazing a path to victory. And he offered himself as a president ready to do battle. "We don't quit," he said. "I don't quit."

"We don't quit" and "I don't want to punish the banks" and corrupt corporate interests and the derisive media are "good people" (as were the health insurers in last summer's speech) -and going to meet with Republicans in the house next week- in vain hope that they're start being nice to him is "willing to fight?"

Wow. Sounds a lot more like Neville Chamberlain to me (who, btw, in another time- with different actors on the wold stage, would have been a fine Prime Minister).