http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/bob-burnett/33204/lost-in-the-white-houseLewis Carroll wrote: "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Carroll was musing about Wonderland but his words apply to the White House, where the Obama administration has lost its sense of direction. The challenge for Progressives is to recalibrate the president's moral compass.
It's been a terrible year for Barack Obama and the nadir was his tax cut "deal" with Republicans. Among Democrats there are three schools of thought about what happened: some feel the president did the best he could, given difficult circumstances. Others see it as a complete sellout to the monied class. I'm in a third group that believes it's an indication the administration has lost its way.
For whatever reason, President Obama is adrift in the White House. As a consequence, major decisions are made in ad hoc manner, without any strategic coherence. That's what was wrong with the president's tax cut "deal." Obama should have seen the crisis coming months ago and made sure that it was a major issue in the mid-term elections. But because the administration was disoriented, they misplayed what should have been a political opportunity.
Barack Obama has lost control of the dominant political message. That's one reason why the Obama tax cut "deal" was a total disaster. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich observed, "the tax deal negotiated between the president and the Republicans... confirms the Republican worldview... Cutting taxes on the rich while freezing discretionary spending... affirms that the underlying problem is big government, and the solution is to shrink government and expect the extra wealth at the top to trickle down to everyone else." Neuroscientist Drew Westen agreed, "
...eliminates any possibility that Democrats could draw a distinction between themselves as the party of the middle class and the GOP as the party that takes care of the rich."
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