Obama and the Confidence Game

WASHINGTON — As he cashiered the head of one of America’s storied automakers last week, President Obama declared that he remained “confident that G.M. can rise again.” Then he flew to London to meet with counterparts to try to turn the world economy around, vowing once again to restore “confidence in the financial markets.”By the time he got to France, he told a town hall meeting that he was “confident that we can meet any challenge as long as we are together.” For good measure, he repeated the phrase twice more in his opening remarks. And in case the folks back home missed it, Mr. Obama taped a message for broadcast Saturday declaring that “I am confident that we will meet this challenge.” Confidence is the name of the game for a new president trying to calibrate his message to match the moment, searching for a way to inspire a recession-weary country and convey hope that better times are ahead. It is a tricky balance to strike. If he sounds too gloomy, he could further depress a nation desperate for any sign of progress. If he sounds too optimistic, he risks looking as if he’s trying to pull something over on the nation, a different sort of Confidence Man. “You don’t want to overlook the misery and not look like you’re in touch with the challenges they’re facing,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff. “On the other hand, you’ve got to give them a sense that there’s a light on the horizon that you’re pointing to and it’s visible.” Mr. Obama finds himself the leader of a nation with depleted confidence in all sorts of institutions of American life, from the banks and auto industry to government and the news media. America’s very place in the world seems in doubt to some, as China and Russia push to create a new international currency to replace the dollar and others challenge the nation’s economic, military and cultural dominance.

This is hardly the first time a president has confronted such a challenge. Franklin D. Roosevelt arguably turned around the mood of a country that appreciated his buoyant style, reassuring fireside chats and certitude that the only thing to fear was “fear itself,” even as the Great Depression raged on for years. Ronald Reagan took over a country following Vietnam and Watergate that suffered what Jimmy Carter had called a “crisis of confidence” and proceeded to emulate Roosevelt with a series of radio addresses and speeches expressing restless faith in the American spirit. SOURCE:NYT.COM