Thursday, July 14, 2011

Quote Of The Day

From a comment on one of Paul Krugman's more condescending blog posts about the recent fake debt ceiling contretemps in DC:
I've said it once and I'll say it a thousand times, some times you need to put bipartisanship aside and do something that will actually work!

Psychodrama Queens: Comment #33 by "PenninsulaMatt"
The rest is worth reading, I think, because it's a concise view of what I suspect a lot of us are thinking out here in the Land Of Not DC, particularly on the progressive side.

More than one pundit has blamed this nonsensical standoff on Obama's urge to reach bipartisan solutions no matter what. I don't think that's what's going on here, because everything I've learned about Obama's economic philosophy convinces me that he has a completely mistaken view of the field, which is far closer to the Republicans' than it is to progressives. It might not be good for the country, but that view is clearly very good for Obama's fundraising potential. Still, his fetish for trying to look as though he's cooperating with Republicans, when it's abundantly clear that the only way they're cooperating is showing up for the meetings, is pretty sad to see. And frankly, I think the GOP would like nothing better than to let Obama cut back Social Security and Medicare without being able to blame it on them.

So, screw bipartisanship. It's not working, because neither party wants it to.


2 comments:

Paul Sunstone said...

Obama's economic views are pathetic. For a smart man, he sure does like dysfunctional theories.

Cujo359 said...

He does seem to. Of course, believing them has worked out well for his self-interest, so that belief is at least somewhat understandable.