Sometimes the biggest story is what’s not reported.

Listening this morning to WAMU radio, the local NPR affiliate, we heard a brief report on the World Economic Forum in Davos from “Marketplace Morning Report,” reprising the longer story from Tuesday. Movers and shakers gather, economy a major concern.

Then the lead story in the second hour of “Morning Edition,” the NPR news magazine, touting results of its new poll, “NPR Poll Shows Vulnerability Of Obama, Democrats“:

Wednesday night’s State of the Union speech is an opportunity for President Obama to reconnect to voters who are frustrated about the state of the economy and the progress he’s been making toward fulfilling his campaign promises.

The president has said he’ll talk about economic growth — the top priority for voters, according to a new survey conducted by Republican Glen Bolger and Democrat Stan Greenberg. The poll of 800 likely voters also finds that opinion has soured on Obama’s No. 1 legislative priority this year: an overhaul of the country’s health care system.

Topics were health care, the economy, jobs, and President Obama’s tax on banks, all in a political context.

What happened to climate change? You know, global warming?

Just a month ago, President Obama delivered a call to action in Copenhagen. “The time for talk is over,” he declared.

Apparently so.

From the NPR report, the “Top Issues” pie chart, illustrating responses to the question, “Which ONE of the following issues do you think the president and Congress should be paying most attention to? Is it ...”

From Jay Nordlinger’s Davos Journal in National Review Online, excerpts from a speech by a leader of a major European power (with Jay’s parenthetical comments):

Although additional protectionism will prove inevitable during the crisis, all of us must display a sense of proportion. Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence is another possible mistake. [He has already mentioned others.] True, the state’s increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. [But,] instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent. The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.

Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.

And one more point: Anti-crisis measures should not escalate into financial populism and a refusal to implement responsible macroeconomic policies. The unjustified swelling of the budgetary deficit and the accumulation of public debts are just as destructive as adventurous stock-jobbing.

Vladimir Putin.

The World Economic Forum is now under way in Davos, in der Schweiz, and Business Week editor Diane Brady provides a succinct report on attitudes and priorities. From Marketplace Morning Report:

Diane Brady: I think the general mood is a real sense of confusion. There’s a sense that there’s going to be unprecedented government intervention in the next year, and so there’s more CEOs and chairpersons than ever in the history of Davos. There’s also more world leaders here, so I think you’re dealing with people whose industries have collapsed in a way that they’ve never seen, and they’re trying to figure out what will get the world out of this, nevermind their own companies.

Jagow: Well, a record number of world leaders there, but one glaring omission, and that is that President Obama and his people aren’t there. What’s the response to that?

Brady: In fact, it was commented on last night. In many ways, the timing of the Obama administration coming in has not been ideal. Valerie Jarrett, who’s one of his senior advisors, is coming on Thursday. But in a year when the Chinese premiere, the German chancellor, even Vladimir Putin is here, the fact that you really don’t have much of a presence from Washington is disappointing I think to a lot of people.

No doubt, but can you imagine the political heat the President would have gotten if he’d flown to Davos?

Jay Nordlinger of National Review is again attending Davos and will be writing a daily journal from the scene, there. He’s always good. In his Davos Journal, Part I, he notes this, reported in MarketWatch:

“This is not just another Davos,” said Andy Stern . . .

A regular foe of private-equity firms and an advocate of tougher regulation of businesses and markets, Stern will make his first trek to the mountain resort for the annual gathering. Stern said he hopes the current economic turmoil will result in a “humbling and mind-opening moment” for many of the forum’s regular attendees.

“These experts have failed the citizens of the globe. They have wrought economic havoc with financial manipulation, greed and deregulation,” he said, in a telephone interview. “I don’t know if it will do any good, but there is a need for straight talk and ending the backslapping, self-congratulatory noblesse-oblige attitude that I think has been more prevalent in the past.”

Andy Stern in Davos? Funny. Maybe he’s negotiating with one of these national leaders, arranging sanctuary abroad for Governor Blagojevich.