The content and tone of this speech were not, however, designed to relax.  The intent was rather to go populist, go angry, and “pivot” policy attention away from Massachusetts and to the Midwest and the Main Street issue of jobs  — or lack thereof.  Orator Obama went into warrior mode almost immediately.  And there he stayed.

Combatants included the usual villains — Big Banks, Insurance and Pharma.  Nothing new here.  But Obama also took some folksy potshots at Washington, even though it’s arguably his and his party’s Washington now.

“The single hardest thing” about being president, our President said, “is not getting out to see the people…Nothing beats a day when I can make an escape, I can break out.”  This, off script, from our Commander-in-Chief, who by expanding our presence in Afghanistan also multiplies American casualties there.  How did military families hear these lines?

“There’re some nice people in Washington, but it can drive you crazy.”   D.C.’s now worried about his future, he noted wryly. They discuss it.  Imagine that, if you can — “that’s what they do.”  But Obama isn’t driven by the polls – “The way to boost your polls is not to do anything.” Instead, he’s chosen to do a lot, for the folks of America.   These jokes about the Beltway, delivered in a tone ironically mild, got some chuckles in Elyria, but how will they play in D.C.?

Although his “White House to Main Street Tour” had been scheduled well before the bluest of blue states filled the seat of the hardest of hard-core advocates of healthcare reform, Obama used some of his time in Elyria to beard the lion. He addressed Massachusetts’ apparent referendum on Democrats in general and healthcare reform in particular with the surprising and substantial victory of Republican Brown over Democrat Coakley.

Many of Obama’s advisers, we learned, had urged the new president not to take action on the difficult matter of healthcare reform.  After all, as he put it, seven presidents and seven Congresses before him had taken on this challenge, and none had succeeded.  Further, as he said his advisers noted, he already had too much on his plate, what with the inherited problems of “two wars” and a “raging economic storm that was wreaking devastation…everywhere”.

Nonetheless, Obama took the hard path: he went to bat for the people. So far, in his own mind, his work has been delayed but not defeated. He has been laboring under no “illusion” that the task would be easy, but he ”did not serve as president to avoid these challenges.”  “I’ve got to admit, we had a little bit of a buzz saw this week,” Obama said, deftly combining two “bit”’s. “I mean, it’s just an ugly process. You’re running headlong into special interests, and armies of lobbyists, and partisan politics that’s aimed at exploiting fears instead of getting things done. And then you’ve got ads that are scaring the bejesus out of everybody. And the longer it take, the uglier it looks.”   Obama neglected to mention that some of those ads were from Big Pharma, supporting his healthcare reform in exchange for his supporting their drug prices.  Nor did he mention the expensive side-deals with AARP, Social Security recipients, AMA and ’til-then recalcitrant but crafty members of Congress.  Talk about “ugly”!  At least the attempted deal with Big Insurance aborted.

President Obama was back in full force as “Campaigner Obama” in Elyria. Once again, he was identifying with the people against insular D.C. He even “shared a burger” with the mayor.  Three times he addressed his audience casually and familiarly as “folks”, while the Beltway “folks” in the transcript became the cooler and distinctly other “they” in the delivery. Two days after Elyria, The Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that our president “wore no tie, dropped his “g’s” the way Ivy-educated politicians so often do to seem earthy and insisted that everything he does ‘is not about me. This is about you’.”   Hello, Ohio!  How good to escape here!

Here, and across the nation, the issue is jobs. Unemployment increased in 43 states and the District of Columbia last month.  In Delaware, Florida, North and South Dakota, rates of unemployment hit record highs.  New Jersey’s unemployment hasn’t been this bad for 33 years; New York’s for 26 years.   The problem is even worse than these data.   More than 600,000 Americans left the labor force in December, so they’re not included in the unemployment statistics.  They quit searching.  They’re people too discouraged and weary even to try to find new jobs.

Obama didn’t cite these particular statistics; nor did he address population growth in D.C., where job prospects  have been less dreary and sometimes downright cheery.   He did say, “All I think about is how we are going to create jobs.”  Getting the banks lending again, he recognized as necessary. “We had to stabilize the big banks, which, given their role in creating this mess, was a tough pill to swallow. I knew it would be unpopular – and rightly so. But I also knew that we had to do it.”

It was, apparently, a populist move to bail out the banks. Some would argue, however, that the effect of this stimulus spending was offset by fears of the additional costs of cap-and-trade legislation, not to mention future tax increases mandated by all the new government spending programs.  These prospects deter business from hiring new workers.

No fewer than 20 times in a speech 27 minutes long did Obama deploy “fight” – in both noun and verb forms.  Over and over again, he promised he’ll “never stop fighting” – often qualified by “So long as I’m President” or its equivalent.  Would that he had actually started fighting for some of these principles  – “to cut waste and abuse in Washington; to eliminate what we don’t need – to pay for what we do; to rein in exploding deficits we’ve been accumulating for too long… to open up government.”  Oh really?

Obama continued, “That’s why we put in place the toughest ethics laws and toughest transparency rules of any administration in history.”  We did?  Did we enforce them?  Getting lists of everyone who visits the White House is not enough.  How about time to read those thousands of pages in proposed bills?  How about the promised CSPAN coverage of healthcare-reform negotiations?

“The White House is a wonderful place to work. You live above the store…But the truth is,” Obama confessed, “being President is also a little confining.”  The truth itself is also a little confining for our President, but only a little.

The 300 or so protesters gathered outside Lorain County Community College picked “Can you hear us now?” as their collective chant.  Obama says it’s all about us and not about him, but it’s not clear he hears what we’re saying, and hoping, and fearing.  So far, we’re hearing much of the same rhetoric we heard two years ago.  Actions speak louder, much louder, than words.  And there’s been a disconnect between the two.

There was a time when Barack Obama liked to liken himself to Abraham Lincoln.  He also liked to reference Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, subtitled “The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”, and he looked as if he was building such a team himself. Bipartisanship seems long gone in Washington, but Lincoln remains famous for his story-telling and a sense of humor that tweaks perspective.

Here’s one story Obama should take to heart.  “How many legs will a sheep have if you call the tail a leg?” Lincoln asked some White House visitors with a cause.  “Five!” they replied.  “You are mistaken,” he said, “for calling a tail a leg don’t make it so.”

Obama ended his speech with a bouquet to the American people, praising our “fundamental character”.  He should recognize that we distinguish between words and actions, between tails and legs.  Please, Mr. President, less soaring – and angry – rhetoric and more plain dealing.  Please.