Obama, four years later

Like Alec MacGillis, I am reassured that Obama's 'populism' on the campaign stump, as unveiled in two rallies this weekend, is of the signature Obama variety - -"communitarian" in MacGillis' apt characterization, "less 'us versus them' than 'all together now.'"  That doesn't mean not hitting Republican policies hard any more than it did in 2008  -- it was only in the thick of failed budget negotiations in 2011 that Obama pulled his punches with regard to the GOP agenda.

One difference with 2008 thus far, though. Obama's pitch then was to reform our politics as well as our policies -- his promise to find common ground with Republicans chimed harmoniously with his assertions that Americans had historically committed themselves to the common good. Now, it's only his policies  -- not the political process in which the rival parties are bound to work -- that he is presenting in a "communitarian" vein -- balancing capitalism's individual incentives with collective effort that leads to shared prosperity. There was no "sometimes the other side may have a point"-ism.