The prime-time speech, a prelude to delivering his first budget blueprint this week, contained no major surprises and was designed to shore up support for steps already taken. Obama sought to link his sweeping domestic initiatives to economic recovery and the nation's long-term progress.
He blamed banks and lenders for pushing home loans on people who could not afford them and Washington politicians, by implication, for giving tax breaks to the wealthy while avoiding tough decisions. At the same time, Obama answered conservatives by defending the need for forceful government action.
"I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves," he said, "that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity."
He acknowledged that fixing the financial system would probably require federal dollars. And he called for raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and expanding the size of the U.S. armed forces, two more promises from his campaign.
National opinion surveys indicate that everyday Americans remain optimistic about Obama's ability to deliver the changes he promised during his campaign. It is investors who have been impatient and whose confidence he'd clearly like to bolster.
Since Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Obama unveiled plans to stabilize banks and rescue homeowners on the brink of foreclosure, the Dow Jones industrial average has plunged more than 10 percent.
"He's kind of struck out. The market reads these things as they are, inadequate palliatives," said Peter Morici, a University of Maryland economist and administration critic.
Privately, some Democratic White House veterans worry that Obama is practicing kitchen-sink politics - lobbing everything at the public when what is needed first is an end to a prolonged financial crisis.
But a Democratic strategist with administration ties saw considerable political value in Obama's prime-time speech.
"Right now, the public is having so much thrown at them and they don't have a frame other than 'change' for processing it," said Celinda Lake, a pollster and former campaign adviser to Vice President Joe Biden Jr.
Obama, she said, "has got to put his brand down for himself and his party, particularly since he's still a relatively new phenomenon."
The speech was part of a new communications strategy to emphasize ways that everyday Americans would benefit from Obama's evolving efforts to stabilize banks and rescue homeowners from foreclosure.
