I'm curious about your political science perspective on this.
Is our president a neo-Hooverite or a masochist? I just don't get it. On the one hand he's a decent arbitrator but on the other he seems like such a weakling. It seems like everything is a losing battle for this administration. Like a nightmare of multiple catch-22s that are all self-imposed.
I remember John Stewart a year ago saying something to the effect of: "I can't decide if he is the Zen master or just out of touch"...
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Interesting question man - I'm not sure he's really either, although he's acting like both. My take is that he's approaching every issue from what he and his advisers think to be a "pragmatic," centrist perspective. He's a great campaigner who cloaked his moderate nature in a rhetoric of radical change...
But at a deep level he's driven much less by any ideological commitments than by political considerations; the ultimate goal being gradual, incremental reforms that mesh with what are seen to be strategic electoral necessities. Its a ridiculous way to govern; he cedes the bully-pulpit almost completely to his adversaries and instead keeps his ear to the pulse of popular opinion (an opinion, mind you, that is molded by Fox News, talk radio, and corporate media).
All the political commentators I read are saying two things: first, the "problem" of the debt is one where electoral concerns weigh tremendously. It's another issue where American voters don't send a clear message - on one hand, they want deficit reduction, on the other, they don't want any programs cut or higher taxes. From a purely electoral perspective, its a tough cookie to crack. Second, his staff is stocked with some of the same peeps who helped Clinton craft his balanced budget (obviously in a vastly different historical context), so maybe some of them do buy into the bullshit. If that's the case then they are Hooverites or masochists.
But I think the reality is even more depressing: Obama and his team are centrists playing the game of politics-as-usual. Translation: we won't see anything in the way of progressive change in the near future.
A couple takes on it:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/02/what-long-game.html
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/02/are-americans-closet-socialists.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/wonkbook_gop_promises_their_bu.html
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