McWhorter argues yes:
The president had no way of knowing that he would be up against as hollow-hearted and
anti-intellectual a contingent as the Tea Partiers. But as of the debt-ceiling negotiations, it has become clear to all of us — Obama included — that we're not going to be rising above much of anything anytime soon. … Obama's model should be, as many have noted, Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 campaign speech, in which the line about "I welcome their hatred" was just the highlight of a template for a president in the situation Obama is in now. Like FDR, Obama should not be afraid to lace his barnstorming addresses over the next couple of months and beyond with words like "deceit" and "indignation."
Greg Sargent notes the uptick in Obama's aggression on the jobs front:
[I]n a surprisingly aggressive appearance at a bridge in John Boehner’s district, Obama took this a step further still, explicitly claiming the role of "warrior" on behalf of the middle class. … For any of you card carrying members of the professional left who had hoped to see Obama barnstorm the country and call out Republicans by name, well, you’ve now seen just that. As for the question of whether we’re going to see more of it, by all indications this is a fight that Obama intends to continue indefinitely. We are now seeing the professional left’s preferred script being put to the test.
(Image from Cat in the Bag)
The Dish 