President Obama: Rise of the Fallen?

Charles M. Blow, the New York Times op-ed columnist, dissects President Barack Obama's jobs-plan speech to determine whether he has truly shifted strategy.

President Obama was champing at the bit during Thursday night's speech to a joint session of Congress. He'd had it with those do-nothings. He was going to show everyone that he could be tough — and he did.

So why does it feel as if we've been here before? Why does it feel as if we've heard him "give it to them" before only to have him lighten up and give in later? Because we have, that's why.

Yes, Thursday's speech was an encouraging shift in tone with a meaty jobs plan of the president's own design.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, even gave USA Today a glowing review of the plan. The paper reported it this way: "The plan, if enacted would boost economic growth next year by 2 percentage points and create two million additional jobs." Of course, it will never be passed as is, but the positive analysis is still a nice feather in the president's cap. 

But, in the end, it was just another speech.

Read Charles Blow's entire column at the New York Times.