Will Fear of Big Government End Obama's Audacity?

Resentment may be another factor. While the New Deal is often remembered as a bailout for the little guy, the bailouts of Wall Street--launched by the Bush Administration and sustained by Obama--have been aimed at the affluent and have not merely made Americans skeptical of the explosion in spending but left them feeling shortchanged as well. Republican pollster Bill McInturff calls this "the notion that they're too big to fail and I'm too small to notice--that politicians have used the government to spend another trillion for the big banks and special interests but not me."

It's not hard to find a national consensus that government should lead on matters like national defense, natural disasters, food safety and support for the elderly and poor. But any bold reach beyond the basics becomes problematic when swing voters start to confront costly realities and the soaring sweep of campaign promises gets lost in programmatic details. Since last spring, there has been a sizable drop in the portion of voters who think Washington should guarantee health insurance, with Gallup now recording--for the first time since it began asking the question--more people saying it is not the government's responsibility (50%) than saying it is (47%).

We're now hearing talk from Democrats in Congress about the need for another new jobs program to ease our pain. With unemployment standing at an agonizing 10.2%, there is palpable fear among Democrats that they have little to show for nearly a year in office. But as the 2010 election season opens, they--and the President--would do well to entertain a different fear: looking as if they're doing too much.

See the top 10 financial-crisis buzzwords.