My anger had become so PHYSICAL earlier last week that I had to take a very, very long walk to try to (not completely successfully) calm down. I've never been angrier about a political situation in my life. Needless to say, I am beyond livid at the Republicans, whose behavior I consider unspeakable and deeply anti-patriotic: in placing their partisan whims so shamelessly above the good of the country, they have displayed their colors as never before. And I am frustrated beyond belief that the Dems did not/could not (whatever) stop this.
I posted the editorial (which, by the way, was in the business section, which should tell you something about where the author is coming from) because it offered an interesting perspective, and because it also highlighted something else which I consider to be true:
-namely, that the Dems (House? Senate? White House? all of the above?) made a huge strategic mistake in not bringing the tax cut issue to a vote before the Nov elections (which, to my mind, would have helped their electoral chances had they done so).
-and, given the fact of the vote delay -and no matter where the fault lies for that vote delay-- and the political and economic context of the
current situation, Obama really is trapped in terms of his options NOW.
While he was far from lovable at his press conference (a Talking Head --Jonathan Alter???_noted that, in addition to his unfortunate defensiveness and testiness about us fellow Dems -- already discussed ad nauseam on DU -- it was also a shame that humor was completely lacking. Alter (?) said, "He needed to be bigger"), I have to say that Pres. Obama's analysis was right on the facts of the situation. THIS CURRENT situation. Right now.
Obama was right in noting that it's unfair to make the hostages (the struggling middle class and especially the unemployed) pay for the hostage situation. As someone who is currently unemployed, believe me,a denial of benefits at this point would really finish me off.
I will even go so far as to suggest that Obama's maneuver was even shrewd. Given THIS situation. Right now. And, given THIS situation, chances for Dems (including Obama) in 2012 will ultimately be helped by this latest chess-maneuver.
one account of political effects (yes, Andrew Sullivan is more conservative than me, but I was reassured by his analysis-- hopefully apt Roadrunner cartoon at the url, to)
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/12/obama-president-mcconnell-sucker.html Krugman has gone from "Let's Not Make A Deal" to "better than what I expected." The response from the far-right has also been illuminating. Drudge rushed to declare Obama's payroll tax cut as a Republican idea. Hinderaker below insists "Obama has admitted that the Republicans were right all along." Notice something about all of this? They all now realize that Obama has been a little shrewder than they took him to be.
. . . .
And notice that Obama has secured - with Republican backing - a big new stimulus that will almost certainly goose growth and lower unemployment as he moves toward re-election. If growth accelerates, none of the current political jockeying and Halperin-style hyper-ventilation will matter. Obama will benefit - thanks, in part, to Republican dogma. So here's something the liberal base can chew on if they need some grist: how cool is it that Mitch McConnell just made Barack Obama's re-election more likely? Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?
The mix of policies is also shrewd from a strategic point of view.
At some point, I suspect, the Congress will have to decide between extending the payroll tax holiday or keeping the Bush tax cuts for millionaires - the double-track of the current Keynesian deal. I think Obama wins on that one, and has set up the kind of future choice the GOP really doesn't want to make. What he has done, in other words, is avoid an all-out fight over short-term taxes and spending now in the wake of a big GOP victory in order to set up the real debate about long-term taxes and spending over the next two years, leading into a pivotal 2012 election that could set the fiscal and political direction of this country for decades, an election in which he may well have much more of an advantage than he does now.
This is the difference between tactics and strategy. The GOP has won again on tactics, but keeps losing on strategy. More broadly, as this sinks in, Obama's ownership of this deal will help restore the sense that he is in command of events. . .