On the Early Campaign Trail, Obama Goes on the Offensive

Facing a difficult reelection fight, President Obama is getting angry and people (well, the press and political class at least) are taking notice.

The Washington Post reports that the usually congenial, compromising president is noticeably fierier as his campaign for reelection heats up, traveling the country and attacking Republicans for standing in the way of progress and standing up only for the rich.

On Tuesday, Obama called out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by name after the Republican declared the president’s jobs bill dead.

“Yesterday the Republican majority leader in Congress, Eric Cantor, said that right now he won’t even let this jobs bill have a vote in the House of Representatives,” Obama said. “I would like Mr. Cantor to come here to Dallas and explain what exactly in this jobs bill does he not believe in, what exactly he is opposed to. Does he not believe in rebuilding America’s roads and bridges? Does he not believe in tax breaks for small businesses or efforts to help our veterans?”

Team Obama has also taken on Bank of America for its recent $5 monthly debit card fee, suggesting that BoA’s customers are being mistreated. “He gets genuinely pissed off at the banks; it’s not an act,” Jared Bernstein, a former adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, told Politico.

This new look Obama has heartened liberals who have called him any combination of too conservative, too nice and too soft. In a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, only 58 percent of Democrats believe he’ll be reelected. But the poll also showed that while 61 percent of all Americans disapprove of the way he’s handling the economy, 76 percent disapprove of Republicans’ “just say no” policy.  Some conservatives have called Obama’s approach to his jobs plan “class warfare.” But instead of balking or making peace, Obama is taking the gloves off, and with a flourish.

“You’re already hearing the Republicans in Congress dusting off the old talking points,” Obama told New York donors two weeks ago. “You know what? If asking a billionaire to pay the same rate as a plumber or a teacher makes me a warrior for the middle class, I wear that charge as a badge of honor.”