Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor-in-chief and publisher of The Nation urges President Obama to behave like a ruthless pragmatist and provide a jobs program to the hurting US manufacturing economy. The double standard of bank bailouts for Wall Street while workers continue to lose jobs is creating impatience with the president’s agenda and may set the stage for the battleground in the 2010 elections.

—Gabriela Resto-Montero

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