Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we have always been and always will be a triple-A country.
At some level, he has to be confident in the face of bad news. The key is whether he leads us to restore our credit rating with action. If he can't, this isn't a display of resolve. It is just denial.
The anti-war side constantly demanded President Bush admit he was wrong about the Iraq War and that we were losing. He did not. Leadership demanded he not give in to those demands. Leadership demanded that he did not give in to those demands for the sake of the troops in the field that he needed to win. And President Bush did lead us to victory rather than exist in denial. President Bush's actions demonstrated that he wanted to solve our difficulties and not wallow in them. So I'll give President Obama the same benefit of the doubt.
Still, for those of the president's fans out there nodding their heads that he is speaking the absolute truth despite our debt level, don't ever tell me you are part of the "reality-based community" again.
UPDATE: The president's supporters are out in full force blaming the Tea Party for the downgrade. It was so widespread so fast that there has to be a memo to his loyalists on this attack point. This is so absurd that I actually pray this is just politics in the age of hope and change and they know full well that it's the debt, stupid--and not the worry that we spend too much to pay our debts.
Meanwhile, our president reacts as if his motto is "the buck stops somewhere in front of me." Leading from behind is not as comforting as he thinks. And as always, the lamentations part of disillusion as his supporters sober up from their hopey stupor is the best part.
But heck, the president has more important things to do than deal with worry over our debt burden that he is piling on at a pace that would make George W. Bush blush (yes, people forget the right was unhappy with Bush on this score). He's on the big truck mileage and emmission issue. That should be reassuring to all of us. He is, after all, the smartest man in the room on any given subject--as he'll readily admit.
This is important stuff. The foundation of our military and diplomatic power is our economic growth. If our economy falters for long it can't propel our foreign policy, and our power will last only as long as momentum carries it forward. You don't even have to be the smartest man in the room to understand that.
