March 14th, 2012
I don’t follow Ezra Klein all that closely but Galley Friend X does. Here’s his latest missive:
The latest step in Klein’s progression:
Step One: Economists thought that we needed a bigger stimulus; it’s Republicans’ fault that Obama could deliver it.Step Two: Economists scoff at the notion that Presidents create jobs, so let’s not go blaming Obama for not creating jobs.
Step Three: Presidents have never been able to convince partisan opponents to do anything, so there’s nothing special about Obama failing to convince Republicans to support his proposals. The best you can do is “mobilizing those predisposed to support him and driving legislation through Congress on a party-line vote.”
All of this is the groundwork for (1) disclaiming President Obama’s ability to improve gas prices and the economy (so long as neither improves) during the pre-election summer, (2) justifying the Obama Campaign’s replication of Bush’s 2004 mobilize-the-base reelection strategy, and (3) absolving Obama in the event of an election day loss.On that last step: If Obama loses, Klein will just write, “Romney didn’t defeat Obama. Angela Merkel defeated Obama.” (Oh, wait, he already wrote that.)On the bright side (for Klein): if Obama loses, then Klein will have all the material he needs for a big book on the structural failure of American governance.
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