Obama’s FDR Moment

Wednesday, 08/17/2011 - 2:30 pm by Eliot Spitzer

Americans are looking to the President for bold ideas. Here are two.

President Obama should heed the famous wisdom of FDR: “Above all, try something.” Being passive in the face of rising anxiety breeds discontent, doubt, and ultimately, contempt.

Interestingly, the president’s one grand moment to date — his embrace of the plan to capture Osama Bin Laden –emerged from a willingness to be bold, even when many of his advisers were counseling otherwise. He defied the more modulated approaches many military advisers recommended, and the payoff, both substantive and political, was huge. The president should take this lesson and apply it to his actions in the domestic arena.