Obama versus the 1 per cent

Just as the Tea Party forced the Republican party to the right, the Occupy Wall Street crowd may be pushing Obama to the left. Yesterday the usually mild mannered US president gave a speech accusing the Republicans of being in the pocket of the very wealthiest of Americans. He told a crowd in Kansas: “For the top one hundredth of 1 per cent, the average income is now $27m per year. The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 times more than his or her workers now earns 110 times more. And yet, over the last decade the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about 6 per cent.” Maybe the old Obama we fell in love with four years ago is about to return.

Many pundits predict Obama will be a one term president. I think they are foolhardy. Yes, Obama’s approval rating keeps falling. Yes, the economy remains in desperate straits. Yes, unemployment is higher today than when he took office. But not only is he facing a pathetic Republican field in 2012, his speech yesterday also reminds us of his mighty skills as an orator and of the easy target Republican intransigence creates for him.

Right now, the president and Democrats in the senate are trying to reduce payroll taxes for working Americans and to pay for it with a temporary 1.9 per cent surtax on incomes of over $1m. The Republicans reject this proposal and seem willing to raise taxes on average Americans in order to keep them low for the super rich.

Both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are convinced America’s problems stem from its self-satisfied, self-serving elites. Both are infuriated at stagnant incomes. Obama is beginning to find a way to tap into that middle class anger and use it for his own purposes. If he manages to make most Americans see the Republicans as the party of the richest 1 per cent, he may still sail to victory in 2012.