When Churchill “mobilized the English language and sent it into battle” he did so by eloquently evoking deeply held beliefs in a large swath of the British public. Despite the enormous damage the First World War inflicted on the British soul, Churchill’s stirring calls to courage in the face of evil, honor in the defense of hearth & home, and faith in the justice and rightness of their cause roused Britain to one last heroic effort and victory. It was eloquence in the service of deeply held beliefs that were THE RIGHT THING TO DO that made his oratory powerful.

If Obama gave a Churchillian call to take our medicine, stop our whining and face the music about living beyond our means he MIGHT tap into a similar buried, shrinking, but still potent impulse in America to DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE. If he then follows up with a moderate centrist program that minimizes long term damage to our free enterprise society while trying to cushion the worst of the shocks, he may very well be be judged favorably by history. Niall Ferguson is an interesting read (like Christopher Hitchens can be) – occasionally insightful but often wildly off base. The idea that there is nothing on the executive & legislative side to be done but feel good jawboning is as absurd as the idea that Obama has been granted God-like dictatorial powers.