There is no contest between Senators Obama and McCain on the content and quality of their economic programs. McCain is essentially absent, wrapped up in sloganeering, and repeating callously the same policies as the Bush team.
Obama has given two of the most thoughtful, nuanced speeches on economics I have seen by any politician no less a presidential candidate. The Cooper Union speech in particular was remarkable. His policy proposals are typically sound. But he is not scoring adequately with the public because he has not had a clear focus and a sense of priorities.
It is now urgently the time for focus. Obama cannot simply reply to every need as it arises. He appears reactive, not ahead of the pack. And his turn to the political center after the nomination victory robbed his campaign of enthusiasm and energy. Yet his speeches have shown him deeply concerned and deeply intelligent on these matters.
The state of America is more dire than he communicates. America requires change in three core ways.
First, Obama must reform healthcare. Not only is America's healthcare system biased, inefficient, and fails to deliver the best care available in many areas. It is also far too expensive and will derail the nation because it will eat up so much in resources.
Second, he cannot allow America to become the low-wage nation it is rapidly becoming. Such a policy should include a significant rise in the minimum wage; strengthening of and revitalizing unions into modern-day institutions open to health care reforms and minorities; the serious prosecution of the widespread violation of labor laws in America, including minimum wages, child labor and discrimination; similarly, demanding an international trading system of universal environment standards and worker rights; avoidance of a high- dollar economic policy so that manufacturing can return to competitiveness; the rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure, which will create jobs and raise productivity; a better balance in economic policy objectives been inflation and employment, now favoring employment; and profound investment in equalizing American education, beginning with pre-schoolers.
Third, he must make America energy-efficient. There is every reason to believe that significant levels of investment in alternative fuels can yield results--even huge results. He should push that lever time and again. But also, transportation and energy policy must be coordinated. Such investment and better administration will also create domestic jobs and higher wages.
Obama talks piecemeal about all these. But the nation is hungry for priorities; it is hungry to understand his vision. It is also hungry for serious financial commitment. Does the American middle class really want a tax cut when so much is to be done?
This is not a matter of making our lives a little better. It is a matter of keeping the nation a first-tier democracy. It is a matter of reversing the nation's decline. McCain has no idea how to do that, or even what the stakes are. Obama does. And we haven't had someone like that in a long time.