In his column at the Chicago Tribune, Clarence Page says that the new, tougher President Obama can win re-election by continuing his new, feisty populism, which erupted in September as he traveled the country promoting his jobs bill. While the bill failed to pass, it helped highlight his battles with Congress.

He found a new voice by December when he channeled Theodore Roosevelt in Osawatomie, Kan., where T.R. in 1910 proclaimed a progressive "new nationalism." He promoted such then-controversial ideas as unemployment insurance, child labor laws, the eight-hour workday, minimum wages for women and a federal income tax. He lost his presidential race, but most Americans take those ideas for granted today, despite conservative efforts to roll back the clock.

The pushback Roosevelt received from Gilded Age conservatives strikingly resembles Obama's battles with today's political right over national health care, another Roosevelt idea. Both men were called "socialist" and worse. But voters want candidates who are on their side. When you're that candidate and opponents resort to calling you names, it only confirms that you're having an impact.

Sources inside Team Obama say we can expect to see Obama run against Congress this year like Harry Truman railed against his own "do-nothing Congress." Why not? Congress is a safe target. Like the media, its members have way lower approval ratings than the president does.

But the nation also needs a grand vision to go with Obama's Teddy Roosevelt rhetoric. We're not in 1910 anymore. Today's anxious voters are looking not only for a short-term rescue but a way to bring back our old prosperity in a new global century.

Read Clarence Page's complete column at the Chicago Tribune.

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