Fight for it.

Editor,

Mr. Obama campaigns well, but his core beliefs seem to revolve around an irrational wish that there were "no blue states, no red states, just United States."

Our president seems to have no problem defending our Constitution from foreign enemies, with misguided military adventurism to be sure, but he has been loathe somehow to go to the mat, or even realize the necessity for it, to fight our domestic enemies, the people who would and have looted our economy under the rubric of brazen, self-serving lies.

I do not think it is too late for Mr. Obama to reclaim his presidency if he is indeed a progressive, which he very well might not be. But he has got to find the courage to admit to himself that it is not possible to make peace with everyone. He is willing to kill bin Laden, but he doesn't dare not to shuck and grin with Republicans who hate his guts and everything his constituents stand for.

The time for glad-handing and back slapping is over. And while he's at it, could he please replace that press secretary of his, Gibbs, who is incapable of making a declarative sentence without halting and um-ing 40 times to spit out 15 words. Take a stand, Mr. President, and fight for it with everything you've got.

Re: "Debating the Economy" (9/9/2010)