…the banality of progress. It is no longer a scoop to report that Obama plans to pass health reform by the end of 2009. There is no surprise when he emphasizes the fiscal necessity of change or the moral urgency of reform. Today’s summit, so far, has provided for few easy headlines. It is just another step on the road to a bill. It’s the process. That may be banal, yes. But when the President of the United States pushing forward on health reform becomes banal, then that, in itself, is news.

Unrelated, apparently the Wall Street Journal thinks Obama is responsible for the stock market meltdown.

This bizarre charge wouldn’t be worth mentioning were it not a market test for a more intense attack from Wall Street and Republican media outlets next year as the nation moves into the gravitational range of the 2010 midterm elections. Republicans have made no secret of their wish to blame Obama for the bad economy, and to stir up as much populist rage against his so-called “socialist” tendencies as politically possible.

To complicate matters for Republicans, however, grassroots populist rage is also building against Wall Street itself, and with some justification. … The public is understandably appalled that its tax dollars are being used to pay and prop up the very people and institutions responsible for this debacle. …

… The Wall Street and Republican media attack machine doesn’t know exactly what to make of this. … But then again, Obama doesn’t seem to know exactly what to make of it either. … I do hope he takes a firmer hand, drawing a clearer distinction and making a clearer connection between clearing up these financial balance sheets and helping average people. Otherwise, the next populist uprising will be born in this moneyed quagmire. It is here that the public is most confused, bears its most serious scars, and is potentially most burdened in future years, by decisions still made in secret.