Blah, blah, blah!
The questioner, Velma Hart is asking for a reason to keep believing:
“I’m one of your middle-class Americans, and quite frankly I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I had been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people and I’m waiting, sir. I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet, and I thought that — while it wouldn’t be in great measure — I would feel it in some small measure.”
Obama’s response is a laundry list of accomplishments, but this misses the bigger point, which is that people are no longer willing to believe that he is willing to fight for them, because he appears to be unwilling to fight at all.
When looking at situations where there are real malefactors involved, his solution is to find common ground, whether it is health care, Wall Street, or BP, and some times, actually a lot of the time, that is simply not enough.