Two words that he is not using

President Obama is going through the motions of a "jobs summit" today -- la de da. He has to do it, but does anyone think this is anything more than PR?

What he is doing that matters, though, is what he does very well: he is letting the populist pot boil Out There and in the Congress....Barney Frank and Ron Paul have actually put some fear into big banks with their financial reform bill...Bernie Sanders has put a hold on Barneke's renomination, and the realization is sinking in that this may be more than a mere affront to "China Ben"'s dignity...contrary to all expectations as recently as the end of summer, there is very little question that a heathcare reform bill is actually gonna become law, and it may be somewhat different from the pig-with-lipstick that Big Pharma and the Insurance Cartel have paid for...318 members of the House, and some 18 Senators, have signed letters of intent to support legislation to require the renegotiation of NAFTA...surprising numbers of Blue Dog Democrats, Wall Street Democrats, and Corporatist Republicans are suddenly deciding this is a good time to retire...and there is more news along these lines, and this time next week, there will be more still.

This Gathering Storm was not part of the Program that Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin, Alan Greenspan et al had promised their patrons in the upper 1%. If you listen carefully, you can hear the spleens chafing all over Wall Street....WHAT IS GOING ON? And Barak Obama has figured some kind of a way to stay above it all and not get in the way . No one knows what he really thinks. Like Lincoln, he is the Benign Sphinx. At a meeting in the Cabinet Room, he famously, and with a certain deliberate and detached silkiness, told the assembled leaders of the finance industry, "Gentlemen, my Administration is all that is standing between you and the pitchforks."

I'll bet you they remember that.

As unemployment and the fear of unemployment ramps up during the holiday season and after, as the 2010 political cycle gets going, and as class consciousness continues its explosive and vengeful return, there will be widespread demand for populist and regulatory reform that will make Ralph Nader look like Phil Graham, and corporate prosecutors like Elliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo are going to be very, very popular in about a year....Cuomo is almost guaranteed to be Governor of New York.

This momentum is growing every day, and so far Obama has not gotten his hands dirty.

If he wants to create good jobs for Americans, he will concentrate on two words that have been absent from political conversation, in a meaningful way, since about the time of Jimmy Carter: TRADE and WAGES. Those words are coming back, and for now, the best thing Obama can do is not do anything to upset the momentum.