Looks like Obama is starting to fight back

Earlier today, I wrote that we need to see more of the Obama from last fall. We're starting to see it. Today, he delivered a speech at the Department of Energy, which eviscerated the GOP's line of attack on his economic rescue package. Okay, he didn't exactly say "GOP" or "Republican." But, when Obama is talking about "worn out ideas" and the "the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems," we all know who he is talking about. That's the language he used against McCain, Bush and the failed Republican policies of the past.


Here's the text. It sure sounds like he's had it with the GOP games. Good:

We can't delay and we can't go back to the same worn-out ideas that led us here in the first place. In the last few days, we've seen proposals arise from some in Congress that you may not have read but you'd be very familiar with because you've been hearing them for the last 10 years, maybe longer. They're rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems; that government doesn't have a role to play; that half-measures and tinkering are somehow enough; that we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenges -- the crushing cost of health care, the inadequate state of so many of our schools, our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

So let me be clear: Those ideas have been tested, and they have failed. They've taken us from surpluses to an annual deficit of over a trillion dollars, and they've brought our economy to a halt. And that's precisely what the election we just had was all about. The American people have rendered their judgment. And now is the time to move forward, not back. Now is the time for action.

Just as past generations of Americans have done in trying times, we can and we must turn this moment of challenge into one of opportunity. The plan I've proposed has at its core a simple idea: Let's put Americans to work doing the work that America needs to be done.

The Republicans thought this was all fun and games. Well, now they may be back in the ring with the Barack Obama who whipped their butts in November. I hope so.