Obama's Roosevelt Moment?

I have felt for some time that Obama would come to a point where he would give up on consensus governance and strike out in a bold and unilateral direction. It could be that Friday's post-closing announcement of suits against mortgage lenders is the opening salvo in just such a new economic plan of battle.

Today's call in The Atlantic for a new "grand bargain" between business and labour is just the type of bold and aggressive action that served both parties so well for a half century from the 1930s to 1980s. It could well be that two and a half years of conciliatory efforts may be the foundation for much bolder action such as this now. Obama's opponents can no longer claim that he is unwilling to compromise -- he has greatly damaged relations with his base and endangered his re-election prospects through just such efforts. And it has demonstrably garnered him very little.

Perhaps it is only wishful thinking on my part, but in the run-up to 2012, we may yet see the Obama we all hoped for. Roosevelt did not enter office with radical ideas, but grasped them, albeit much more quickly than this administration, out of necessity.