Obama: 'Extraordinary times'

by Mark Silva

One of the more notable findings of the flurry of public opinion polls gauging President Barack Obama's performance this week focuses on the breadth of the agenda that Obama has taken on.

The scope of the president's agenda is, in short, breathtaking: A job-building and some say budget-busting economic stimulus, a costly automobile industry overhaul, an ambitious bid for healthcare, energy and education initiatives - with an overhaul of community college funding and laws promised in a couple of weeks -- new financial regulations and immigration reform on the way, with time out today to talk about "fatherhood.''

In Washington, the vice president said this week, problems flow uphill -- to Capitol Hill -- and there is a flood of them.

While polls have revealed public doubt about some of the president's initiatives on the economy, and concern about the massive deficits racking up, the president still holds the support of about six in 10 of all surveyed in a variety of national polls.

But relatively few are criticizing the president for taking on too much: Only 37 percent of all those surveyed by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News say the president has taken on too much. Most, 60 percent, say that if the president has taken on a lot of issues, it's because he faces a lot of problems.

The White House has been taking full advantage of that support, underscoring the sweep of the challenges confronting the president at every turn.

"Now, we've been called to govern in some extraordinary times,'' Obama said last night, in an appearance at a fundraising dinner for the Democratic Party's Senate and House campaigns - top donations for the party, $30,400.

"We've been asked to confront challenges of a size and scope that are unmatched in recent history -- a set of challenges that very few generations of Americans have ever been asked to confront,'' he said. "We've got two wars, a debilitating recession, a global financial crisis, issues like global climate change that threatens our planet.

"Meeting these challenges is not easy. If it was easy it would have already been taken care of.,'' he said to laughter. "And everyone here could kick back and spend more time at home with their families.

"But that's not the hand that we've been dealt. We've been called to lead not when it's easy, but when it's hard,'' the president said. "That requires tough choices, and it requires doing what's right, even what -- even if what's right isn't always necessarily popular.

"It requires taking on the status quo in Washington. And let's face it, the status quo in Washington favors inertia over action; and tinkering over real reform,'' he said. "It requires the courage to look beyond the immediate news cycle, which is very hard to do, and to look beyond the next election to the next generation -- to do what we have to do to ensure that the American Dream is there for our children, and that the world that they inherit is better than the one that we did.

"That's what so many in Congress have done in these last five months, and that's what we're going to have to do in the hard months to come,'' he said. "It's not just a responsibility, I think it's also a privilege -- and it's an extraordinary opportunity -- for in our hands lies the ability to shape our world for good or for ill. ''

The president counts on his strong congressional majority to support his broad agenda, which means raising more money for the midterm elections.

"That's why all of you are here tonight,'' Obama said at last night's fundraiser at the Mandarin Hotel in Washington. "That's why you're digging deep again tonight, at a time when it's not easy to dig deep. That's why I know that you're going to keep on making those phone calls and knocking on those doors. And that's why we've got to get to those polls again next November to make sure that we send a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate back to Congress to finish the business of the American people.''