The freeze and the middle-class proposals also are the first sign that White House officials have a deeper understanding of Obama’s political problems than they’ve suggested in all their media appearances since Brown’s win. Again, the substance here might be less than meets the eye, but it’s at least a feint in the direction of voters’ true concerns, rather than an admonition to get out and communicate more about the same old things Obama has already been doing. The risk, of course, is that it isn’t enough — or it’s too incoherent considering the continuing push for big health-care legislation — to re-assure independents, at the same time it depresses the president’s base. In the short term, though, I’m assuming this stuff polls well.