Dear Mr. President...

[regnaD kciN]

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama compared the stock market Tuesday to the daily tracking polls used during campaigns, saying that paying too close attention to how Wall Street "bobs up and down" could lead to bad long-term policy. "What I'm looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability of the United States ... to regain its footing," Obama said after meeting in the Oval Office with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

...On one level, I think your cool-headed approach to this is highly desirable. On the other hand, I think there are better ways to describe that approach.

Comparing the DJIA to last year's tracking polls is an interesting analogy, and we all know how well such an attitude paid off for you during the election. However, I'm not sure the analogy applies as fully as you might think. For example, say that, around mid-September, the trackers had shown you consistently up by 10% over McCain. Three weeks later, those same polls were showing you consistently 20% down. Do you expect us to believe that such a drop, which is pretty much analogous to what has happened to the American economy over the past six months, wouldn't have caused a serious rethink of your election strategy?

The problem, Mr. President, is that Americans aren't seeing the market as "bobbing up and down," but as sinking down, down, and further down. We're talking about a greater than 50% drop over the last year (most of which, let us be completely clear, occurred on your predecessor's watch, and even virtually all of what has transpired since then can also be laid at the feet of decisions made by the previous administration). It's nice that you can stay calm in a tense situation, but it's understandable if the American people aren't feeling so calm, particularly when it's their jobs, retirement savings and ability to pay the day-to-day bills that are on the line.

No one expects you to get everything right the first try, and it logically follows that you, like FDR, are going to have to go through a process of trying different tactics and changing those that don't work. The question I would ask is: how long (and what further bad economic news) will it take before you decide that additional, possibly more-drastic measures are needed? I don't have any answers myself; I'm just asking. But I do suspect one thing: as long as the American people are convinced that we're on a perpetual downward spiral with no end in sight, that's precisely where we'll be.