Obama and the Bully Pulpit

The President is the only elected official which commands national media attention. Had Obama wanted to, he could have told the public:

1. That the main cause of unemployment was the corruption (or business practices, if he preferred less inflammatory language) of the major banks and that this could be addressed by government.
2. The disaster in residential real estate is also a result of banking practices which could be addressed by government.
3. That Social Security is not in financial trouble and that minor tweaks could maintain the system's solvency indefinitely.
4. That medical cost growth is a huge and real budget problem, and could be addressed by policy.

Had he done so, he would be a much better position to fight off the program of austerity and bigotry that the Republicans are going to try to implement in the next two years. He would also have told the truth, but that doesn't seem to rank very high with hominid leaders.