When Government Works

Thanks to the potentially global disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the flooding of Nashville has not gotten the media (or blogger) attention it deserves. What's interesting is that, contrary to how the GOP desperately want to spin the news about this Administration, Obama's team was completely quick and responsive, unlike the other team's guy for eight years prior:

Heavy flooding has devastated the state, but Gov. Phil Bredesen couldn’t stop gushing about the president’s help on Thursday.

“FEMA and the White House have been absolutely supportive,” he told reporters on a conference call.

FEMA was quickly on the ground, and on Monday, “the president was on the phone with me before the sun came up,” he said.

Bredesen, a Democrat, said he’s been in regular contact with White House staff. In fact, he had just ended a long conversation with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Bredesen, who has weathered his share of tornados and storms as a public official, said that he’s “never seen this kind of response.”

It seems that there's a bit of optimism creeping into the White House this week, thanks to Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight:

First, there was the 162K new jobs in March, and we will soon enough know whether that was an aberration or part of a broader turnaround once the Bureau of Labor Statistics announces its April figures this Friday...

Second, objective improvements in the economic forecast matter electorally only insofar as people perceive the economy to be improving. So you can imagine the cautious optimism in the West Wing as the Administration circulated this New York Times piece and poll, out today, showing that 41 percent of Americans now say the economy is getting better—up 8 points from a month ago. (Only 15 percent say it is worsening.)...

Third: Health care. Now, keep in mind that many of the provisions of the new legislation do not take effect until years from now, after both the upcoming midterms and even President Obama's re-election bid have passed. Still, WH communications director Dan Pfeiffer--or, more likely, some staff surrogate writing under Pfeiffer's name--was blogging quite effusively today about another New York Times piece (this one an editorial) on the subject of how benefits from the healthcare reform bill are already being felt by some Americans.

And it seems that the "enthusiasm gap" that only a month ago drew a rosy picture for the GOP this fall is now cut in half.

Is it too early to say again, "Gobama?"