Obama’s warning yesterday that failure to act quickly on the stimulus “will turn crisis into a catastrophe” demonstrates both the President’s great strengths as a communicator and what may well become his fatal flaw.

First the strengths: I don’t know who writes this stuff, Obama himself, his ace speechwriter, or some symbiotic combination of the two, but from a purely rhetorical point of view it was spot on. The alliteration of “crisis” and “catastrophe” worked without sounding contrived, and the not letting the “prefect be the enemy of the essential” was a nice twist of a well-worn phrase. Both we’re effective sound bites, which is what every speechwriter strives for in such circumstances.

And then, of course, there is Obama’s delivery and demeanor, which is calm, serious and restrained, with just enough humor to dispel any suggestion of arrogance, which sometime ago I thought would be his Achilles’ heel. All this has already carried him a long way and will continue to work for him for some time to come. Except for the fatal flaw, his real Achilles’ heel as it were…

Obama’s mounting problem is the radical disjunction between what he says and what he does, or as I’ve put it before, the credibility problems that arise when one’s rhetoric becomes increasingly unmoored from reality.

The Obama administration said they wouldn’t hire lobbyists and would have the highest standards in history, yet they’re hiring lobbyists and have tried to fill top posts with tax cheats. What’s the line, if they didn’t have double standards they wouldn’t have any standards at all?

Obama swears to end harsh interrogation techniques, holds a big public ceremony and signs an executive order to outlaw torture. But then we find there’s a separate protocol for the CIA which presumably allows such techniques in exceptional circumstances – like the total of four times waterboarding was used in that terrible, evil Bush administration to stop plots that would have otherwise taken many thousands of lives?

Now he’s saying that we have to act quickly, right now, without delay on this stimulus package otherwise those heartless Republicans will throw the country into a “catastrophe.”

But the reality is that the Democrats could have passed this porker yesterday if they really believed in it. But no one does. Economists on the left and right are running away from it because it stinks to high heaven. Even hyper partisan Chris Matthews calls it “crap.” No one wants to take responsibility for this bag of pig manure, and much of the spending that could possibly have a stimulus effect (I’m skeptical) won’t have that effect for until next year – 12 months or more out.

So we’ve got to pass a lousy bill that won’t affect the current crisis and do it right away – in the next few days – or it will be a catastrophe?

The real reason for rushing the bill forward is that support among the American people is dropping rapidly in the polls. You have to believe that the American people are stupid not to see that, and that you can fool them with some nice sounding words and a good delivery.

That’s called having contempt for your audience and – here’s an important lesson in being a good communicator – having contempt for  you audience is not a winner in the long run.