The Republican Party: Worse than You Imagine, Even After Taking Account of the Fact That the Republican Party Is Worse than You Imagine
Worth Reading, Mostly Economics, for April 11, 2010

The Obama Administration Needs a New Course

As I understand it, the governing strategy of the Obama administration has been simple:

  1. Rule from the sensible, bipartisan, technocratic, consensus center and pursue good policies.
  2. Staff your administration with smart centrists--people who are, like me, between weak-tea social democrats and Dewey-Eisenhower-Rockefeller Republicans.
  3. Try hard to build bipartisan legislative coalitions from the center out.
  4. But in the end go for bills rather than issues--pass something, rather than drawing a line and urging the people to give you the members of congress you need to pass a good bill.
  5. Wait for the press corps to recognize that the Republicans are absolutely totally bats--- insane and tell this to the voters.

But this strategy does not seem to be working for three reasons:

  1. The Republicans are all insane--not just the Republican right, not just the Republican center, but the left wing of the Republican Party as well.
  2. The press is not cooperating--they continue their "opinions of shape of earth differ" reporting.
  3. "Consensus" policies on the economy were not "technocratic"--they have left us with a still overmighty and uncurbed financial sector, with 9.7% unemployment, and with an electorate rightly dissatisfied with the management of the economy.

President Obama needs to chart a different course for the country's sake. But what?

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