I fail to see that it would unite people behind Obama, unless he pushes for it.
Sorry, but the pain of seeing my fellow Americans out of work is too much.
I feel the same pain; our disagreement is about a different point: the policies you advocate have been tried before and known to produce even more unemployment. They may help a specific industry or two, and only temporarily so, while making more poor the entire country. In sum, they are both ineffective and unfair.
To make the fairness point more explicit, suppose roofers of a particular county are protected by tariffs. How is that fair that you must pay more for the roof while nor benefiting from any greater salary at your own job? Why is the roofer more special than you? You should be able to hirer a roofer from an adjacent county if he offers a lower price and spend the savings on your children rather than the more expensive, protected roofer. As you can see, such policies, while well-intentioned, give privilege to some workers at the expense of your own family, charities that you choose to support, etc. --- everything that is dear to you? Hardly fair: you are an American just like anybody else.
As for impracticality, the policies have always resulted in stagnation of the industry they were designed to protect. Those industries die eventually anyway, but after wasting considerable resources of a nation on the protected few. Think of Detroit, were workers for decades could retire at 48 with a pension equal to 95% of the last salary and full health benefits for life. That added $1500 to every car sold in America --- paid by you and me, patriotic Americans. Why? That was not fair at all. And has it saved the industry? Not at all. The reason Detroit is functioning again is that those same protections (benefits) were smashed when the gov took over.
That's where good intentions lead when they are unsupported by careful analysis and courage of facing reality as it is.