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President Obama summed up how he’s been treated by the political opposition in this unscripted comment in his Labor Day speech yesterday in Milwaukee:

And over the last two years, that’s meant taking on some powerful interests — some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time.  And they’re not always happy with me.  They talk about me like a dog.  (Applause.)  That’s not in my prepared remarks, it’s just — but it’s true.

But as fiery as that was, the thing that has really got President Obama fired up isn’t how he’s been treated — it’s how Republicans want to treat the American economy if they get their hands back on the wheel. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is the second must-see segment of his speech:

These are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middle class.  They drove our economy into a ditch.  And we got in there and put on our boots and we pushed and we shoved.  And we were sweating and these guys were standing, watching us and sipping on a Slurpee.  (Laughter.)  And they were pointing at us saying, how come you’re not pushing harder, how come you’re not pushing faster?  And then when we finally got the car up — and it’s got a few dings and a few dents, it’s got some mud on it, we’re going to have to do some work on it — they point to everybody and say, look what these guys did to your car. (Laughter.)  After we got it out of the ditch!  And then they got the nerve to ask for the keys back!  (Laughter and applause.)  I don’t want to give them the keys back.  They don’t know how to drive.  (Applause.)  

I mean, I want everything to think about it here.  When you want to go forward in your car, what do you do?

AUDIENCE: D!

THE PRESIDENT:  You put it in D.  They’re going to pop it in reverse. They’d have those special interests riding shotgun, then they’d hit the gas and we’d be right back in the ditch.  (Laughter.)

As good as it was seeing President Obama demonstrate his enthusiasm for the upcoming choice in November’s election, his speech yesterday wasn’t just red meat to pump up the base: he also delivered a concrete proposal for infrastructure jobs spending that won’t increase the deficit over the long-term. And that proposal is part of a series of proposals he’s putting on the table this week to accelerate the economic recovery. (And don’t forget about the looming debate over extending Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy.)

No doubt pundits will try to argue that this is all too little, too late to save the Democratic majority in Congress. But we’ve still got two months until election day, and outside of the rabid right, most Americans haven’t been paying that much attention to the campaign. Now we’ve got the leader of the Democratic Party paving the way in the final stretch of the campaign, and he’s doing it by showing why the election matters. And maybe just maybe, in the end John Boehner will have made a mistake by measuring the drapes before the first ballots have even been cast.

You can watch the full video here. Transcript below the fold.