Bill Clinton’s Power of Optimism Motivational Tapes
From Associated Press:
Now, former President Clinton says he thinks President Barack Obama should talk more optimistically about the prospects that the nation will recover from its current deep economic woes.
Clinton said he wants Obama to assure the people that America will surmount this problem. But at the same time, the former president said in an interview broadcast Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “I like the fact that he didn’t come in and give us a bunch of happy talk.”
He also said he believes “you will see some good economic news form the stimulus fairly soon.”
For his part, Obama has said he thinks the country will get past the recession, but that it will be a long slog.
I’ll tell ya. I’m with the ex-President on this one. While Obama is proving to be a good steward of the country, he is making a serious misstep in not letting us in on his natural optimism. It might be that he’s just not comfortable putting on “the show.” You know “the show.” You got it from Reagan. You experienced it again with Clinton - those infectous motivational speeches that made you believe the recovery was right around the corner and it was okay to buy that new TV.
Sure, it’s a pile of horseshit most of the time, but our entire economic system is built on this fantasy. Wall Street goes up on good news, down on bad. Why? It’s not always because there are concrete, unchallengable facts. Sometimes there are. But most of the time it’s about a mood. If the mood is good, we’re lifted up. It’s the same feeling as that first day of spring that reaches 60º.
Expect the republicans to try to weight us down with Obama’s pragmatism. They really have nothing left up their sleeves but to hope the economy tanks and find ways to exploit that notion. It’s sad. Nonetheless, we’ve got a smart guy here who hopefully will learn from the mistakes of others.
