Time For A Reboot Of Populism.exe

President Obama's weekly address focuses heavily on the SCOTUS decision giving American corporations free reign to advocate directly for candidates in primary and general elections.  Greg Sargent sees a strategy here:

* The fight Obama needs? The President devotes his whole weekly address to slamming the SCOTUS decision, saying it will make it easier for special interests and corporations to stomp all over the public interest. He vows to make it a “priority” to develop a “forceful, bipartisan response.”

The White House seems to see in the SCOTUS decision a chance to mount a clean, easy-to-understand populist crusade that might enable Obama to reboot, as he might put it. By Obama’s own admission, a year’s worth of sometimes-sordid backroom negotiating over health care has left his administration looking like part of the problem — as if it’s been subsumed by the D.C. insider culture and its insular and corrupted governing practices.

So perhaps White House advisers hope this fight will enable him to achieve separation from that culture and reclaim his reformer mantle.

It's possible. But not while health care hangs out there like the ultimate pink elephant in the room.  I'm glad that on economic issues he's finally coming around (he has no choice with Helicopter Ben's nomination on the rocks and Timmy in trouble as well) but until he convinces America that government intervention in health insurance is something we need, the rest is meaningless.

The Republicans will correctly be able to say "Yeah, Obama's changing the subject.  How's that insider deal on health care going, Mr. Populist?"

Fix health care.  Now.