If you’ve ever been to Sanibel Island for vacation or anywhere in the touristed parts of Lee County, Florida it’s hard to think of the area as being in a recession. But as Barack Obama pointed out on his visit to Ft. Myers, Florida today, this once prosperous area is hurting.
“I know Fort Myers had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year,” the President said, standing next to Charlie Crist, the state’s Republican governor and a possible 2012 presidential candidate. He cited, Chico’s, the women’s clothing company whose headquarters is in Ft. Myers, as one of the local businesses that is reeling.
Once again, I think he did well stylistically and substantively–laying out the challenges facing the country, making the case that inaction or tax cuts alone, is not enough given the failed policies of the past and the gravity of what faces the country. In terms of raw salesmanship, he’s doing fine. Wonk for wonk, he was Clintonesque in his handling of policy questions from the audience.
Obama may be doing well but the problem is what’s going on in the lower right hand corner of your TV screen where the Dow is plummeting in reaction to the Geithner bailout plan. Following the markets’ gyrations can be utterly misleading. But the market is going to dictate what happens with this latest bailout just as the plummeting Dow changed the politics in Washington last fall. Republicans and Democrats who stood against George W. Bush’s bailout reversed course when the Dow plummeted and the thing to watch in the coming days is whewther a plummeting Dow will force Congressional Republicans to reconsider their opposition to the stimulus–probably not–and whether it will force the Obama administration to recalibrate its bailout plan or even to come back to Congress for a second stimulus in a few months. In other words, this is all very much a work in progress.
Especially with the Dow now down almost 350 points at 1:23.
