Jonathan Chait and I noticed the same thing: President Obama is acting more and more confident about the economy, and bolder and bolder about calling out his opponents. Today he blasted Big Oil.

Yesterday President Obama said this:

“We can say beyond a shadow of the doubt today we are headed in the right direction,’’ Mr. Obama told a crowd of about 250 people during a swing through this economically depressed city. “All those tough steps we took –- they’re working, despite all the naysayers who were predicting failure a year ago’’

And here’ s what he said last night:

Don’t tell me how to mop. Pick up a mop! … But that wasn’t their strategy; it was not their strategy from day one. And I’m not making this up. This is public record. [...] They’ve done their best to gum up the works; to make things look broken; to say no to every single thing. … So after they drove the car into the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want the keys back.  (Laughter.) No! (Laughter and applause.)  You can’t drive!

His message is loud and clear. The Party of No nearly destroyed this country during the BushCo years, and they continue to obstruct while promoting the same terrible policies that got us into this mess in the first place. They are consistently on the side of Big Oil, Big Business, Big Corporations, Big Banks, Big Pharma, Big Insurance. The little guy– nor the medium guy, for that matter– is nowhere on that list.

The restoration of the nation has a way to go, but things are slowly, steadily looking up. If the momentum continues, President Obama has a winning message. If not, no message will save him; only his personal popularity could. Maybe.