It was a clever speech, a reminder of two things that had gone understandably forgotten through President Obama’s awful summer: he’s capable of passionate feeling, and he can also be politically dextrous. The feeling was indignation on behalf of the country’s unemployed, underemployed, foreclosed, stretched to the limit. Not sympathy or feeling their pain—Obama doesn’t do that well and didn’t try last night, because it’s really beside the point. As Mark Schmitt points out in the New Republic, polls show that “people no longer care that he cares. They’re fed up with gestures, empathy, or good ideas that get blocked in the political process—all they want is results.” No, what the President expressed was a fairly unquiet anger at Washington’s—meaning Congress’—failure to act on those Americans’ behalf.

That was also the politically dextrous move. Having spent the summer futilely negotiating on the Republicans’ terms, he’s now calling them out to negotiate on his, trying to turn disastrous economic circumstances to his advantage by presenting the choice before the country in a simple way: do something or do nothing. He didn’t waste much time arguing against the Republican idea of solving all problems by cutting taxes and regulations. He just cited it and moved on, hoping that the public will see that it’s beside the point, an ideology without relevance to the facts, as the country descends into another recession. The rhetoric of the speech was all pragmatic: these are the facts—do something about them, or do nothing.

My guess is that the House will give him just enough of his plan—further cuts to payroll taxes paid by employers and employees—to be able to say, We’re not rank partisans and blind ideologues: we are doing something. But this wouldn’t be nearly enough to reverse the downward economic slide, allowing the opposition to go on playing the game it’s played since Obama’s inauguration—to lay the blame on him for the results of their own acts of legislative sabotage. Power without responsibility requires a high degree of self-restraint, something lacking in the contemporary Republican Party.

Then Obama’s best hope will lie with the public. Do Americans still have enough faith in him, and in government, to give the President a second shot at reviving the economy? I’m not at all sure. When he called on citizens to make their voices heard in Congress, my heart sank. Those who have tried over the past couple of years have been drowned out. In a climate of political rage and economic despair, nihilism plays a lot better. For a devastating account of how this has come to be, read this essay by a Republican House staff member who just retired in disgust after three decades.

In the past, Obama has always tried to reason with nihilism, to say, “You can’t really think that. Let’s find a way to compromise.” That’s his deepest instinct, and some version of it will resurface before long. He hates to draw bright lines and emphasize stark contrasts. But for now, he’s decided to take nihilism on directly (“Pass it right away”), hoping that the public will see the difference and choose sides.

Photograph by Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images.