Taking a test, setting a path

Barack Obama, a reserve of steamy rhetorical air, will supply to Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate a mighty wind, whether it pushes, pulls or breaks is a thing to be determined. State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, of Bath County, hopes for gusts strong enough to propel him to Richmond. But a foul breeze blows. While the president remains popular, confidence in his domestic policies is slipping. This may leave Deeds on his own, holding his nose.

More than two-thirds of respondents in a recent Gallup poll approved of Obama personally and almost as many rated him high for job performance, but just 55 percent backed his handling of the economy and only 45 percent supported his federal spending initiatives, a drop of 3 to 4 percentage points in those categories since February.

This inspires dismissive waves from Obama’s still-thick cadre of fans. His enemies have turned wishful, they say. More difficult to dismiss are increased job losses and the Obama administration’s own grudging admission that the president’s $787 billion stimulus package, signed four months ago and billed as an “adrenaline jolt,” relied on economic forecasts that were “overly optimistic,” according to The Associated Press.

Here sounds the ring of contemptible familiarity. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the Democrat whom Deeds seeks to succeed, twice proposed budgets that included revenue projections rosy enough to make Pollyanna sneer. Republicans questioned the numbers, Kaine responded with a sniff and the state’s finances responded with a budget gap that opened at $1 billion last summer and continued widening. Kaine, frequently touted as a potential running mate to Obama, slipped from the vice presidential contenders.

But on the subject of deficits, Kaine squeaks while Obama roars. Unrestrained like Kaine by balanced budget requirements, Obama’s spending plans will triple the federal deficit by year’s end to $1.845 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office says. Obama pledges he will hack the gap by half in four years, but the nonpartisan CBO is skeptical, projecting deficits of more than $1 trillion annually in 2019.

Lurking among spending initiatives such as the stimulus plan and carmaker and mortgage bailouts is another potential siphon in nationalized health care. Also looming is the aging of America and the coming pension crash. Even an economic turnaround is unlikely to rescue the fed’s finances from Obama’s excesses. A turn in the opposite direction could plunge the country into an economic abyss from which it might never fully escape.

Republicans, naturally, are racing to the site of Obama’s apparent stumbling, jabbing accusatory fingers in the air. Democrats contend rightly that President George W. Bush spent his way from surplus to deficit with Republicans providing all the resistance of a call girl hailed by a well-heeled suitor.

One party or the other – or in Virginia’s case, either Deeds or Republican Bob McDonnell – could do the country and the world a favor by forgoing the testing and tapping of political winds and returning rationality to the use of public money. Republicans suggest they are better prepared to do this but have failed to prove it. Obama says “paying for what you spend is basic common sense,” then demonstrates he has none of it.

The Old Dominion’s gubernatorial race is considered an indicator of the country’s political direction as well as a measure of Obama. Let’s hope that, on the former, America is ready to tack toward living once more within her means. Or else the winds may bring a storm that rages.