Obama's philosophy could be called "pragmatism," but the problem is that while pragmatism might reorient how things get done in Washington, it won't reorient the country's political philosophy because it won't connect with the public.
I reject the reader's analysis in total. For one thing, throughout his campaign Obama had clear messages as to why things weren't working. But the reasons he gave were frequently not necessarily what the public wanted to hear. Still, enough people had had it with the policies of Bush/Cheney and were frightened enough by the idea of Clinton (or worse, McCain/Palin) that he was seen as the most practical solution to our problems. And so far, everything Obama has delivered on has, in many ways, followed his philosophy and his vision, even down to the rancorous partisanship we are seeing on both sides of the aisle.
For another, having a "simple hook" as a way of explaining his policies might endear him to voters, but I don't want Obama to be endearing -- I want him to govern effectively. I hope he speaks to me like an adult, pushes me to increase my understanding of the issues (and really, what better time is there than in the age of the internet to do just that?), and explains enough of the complexity of what we are facing to help me swallow the bitter pills I know we'll confront now and in the future. I'm pretty sure most Americans feel the same way.
Finally, while I don't have the time to go back and read the transcript of every speech or every answer to every question in the presidential debates, I'm reasonably sure that I won't find anything there where he suggested that government solves economic problems better than the market. Obama is a capitalist: his appointment of Geithner and his retention of Bernanke were dead giveaways on that. I'm sure Obama would agree that, during this economic crisis, it's not a matter of government being a better solution than the free market; government is and was, unfortunately, the ONLY viable solution. When major U.S. corporations are being "nationalized," it's not because, as Jim Manzi wrote, we are "sacrificing some economic vitality for public control." It's because we are in frickin' crisis mode. If we wanted to avoid a global meltdown and a real depression, the government printing presses had to be working three shifts to put a boatload of money into the economy. What corporation can do that? The major corporations that have benefited from government intervention are all solidly on the road to recovery (Citigroup being the main exception). They couldn't have righted themselves unaided, and allowing them to fail was simply not an option. Bush knew that, Paulson knew it, Bernanke knew it, and so do Obama and Geithner. Those who didn't get it will probably go to their graves believing we're now a socialist country, and that simply points to partisanship and bitterness than solid governance.
In the end, Obama's job is to balance, as effectively as possible, the needs of American citizens to feel secure against the needs of American business to innovate and grow. We're not out of the woods yet, but with home prices increasing (and personal savings holding steady against increased personal spending!), many signs point to the fact that Obama's messages are getting across.
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