Fingers Crossed!!!

Later on today, President Obama will make one of the most important speeches of his presidency and, in my opinion, one of the most important presidential speeches ever. This may sound like hyperbole, but tonight the president is expected to make a proposal to raise taxes that, I believe, will not only shape the rest of his political fortunes - as well as those of the Democratic party - but will test whether our country is capable of remaining a great nation.

The reason for all of this portentousness is that no president or presidential candidate has seriously talked about the need to raise taxes since Walter Mondale did it so disastrously in his run against Ronald Reagan. To be sure, many presidents have actually raised taxes (including Reagan - 7 times), but none of them have had the political will or courage to actually publicly call for this.

There are countless reasons why this is crucial, and I would love to yack on about them, but I've got to go to work in order to pay some of those taxes!! Before I head out the door though, I just wanted to do three things: first, give the president some props in advance for even daring to take this step. Secondly, cross my fingers and hope that he does indeed outline a bold and honest plan. And finally, cross them again to hope against hope that he will actually fight like a lion to make it all happen, because otherwise we're in big trouble.