Obama to Mortgage Biz and Banks: We're in This Together

It's becoming a standard play for President Obama. Just as he gave a high-profile speech to seal the deal on the health care overhaul earlier this year, he came to New York City on Thursday to set up the winning shot for financial reform. With Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein seated in the third row, President Obama could have scored easy points in his big speech at Cooper Union by making the titans of Wall Street squirm, and suffer for their greed and recklessness. The headlines even said the president "scolded" bankers.

Not really. What he did do was tell them that their fortunes would ebb and flow along with those of the nation's consumers, and that it's therefore in Wall Street's interest to support the Democrats' financial reform bill that it has so loudly opposed. As the president put it: "Ultimately, there is no dividing line between Main Street and Wall Street. We will rise or we will fall together as one nation."

I'd like to think this is true.