"He is a most improbable president."

[kpete]

Robert Reich says Obama's main problem is that he failed to take the risks necessary to expand the realm of the possible to the degree he might have.

But: Reich also concedes Obama deserves "enormous credit," and says the best may be yet to come: "He is, as he reminds us, a most improbable president." All worth pondering.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703999304575399420815017804.html
via:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/08/the_morning_plum_65.html

[impik]

1. This is just about the only positive thing

Reich is saying in this article. You did a good job making me read it, but i stopped in the middle of it. Nothing i haven't heard already.


This country will get the congress it deserve and in 2012, the president it deserves.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. You are always talking about what people 'deserve'

and that is so nasty, just on the face of it. Most of your posts are you sitting in judgment and declaring who 'deserves' what. Are you under the impression that life hands out that which is 'deserved'? You adhere to a karmic view, in which all that happens is a result of our actions and we get results that we 'deserve' according to those actions?
You use that terminology frequently, and it is smug, unfounded, and ill defined. I guess the message is that mean is the method you dig the most, and that you see yourself as a universal arbiter of who 'deserves' what.
Explain what you mean. I personally think all humans are born with full rights, and that we all deserve respect, liberty and the ability to seek contentment. I think those rights are put there by powers far greater than any politician. Why do you think otherwise?

[treestar]

15. Since you dislike the terminology

do you also upbraid anyone who says Obama does not "deserve" their vote?

[ProSense]

2. Reich's piece is not bad, but he puts his finger on something and then tries to argue it away

The administration deserves enormous credit. It accomplished as much as it possibly could with a fragile 60 votes in the Senate, a skittish Democratic majority in the House, and a highly-disciplined Republican opposition in both chambers. Yet Bismarck's dictum about politics as the art of the possible is not altogether correct.

The real choice is between achieving what's possible within the limits of politics as given, or changing that politics to extend those limits and thereby more assuredly achieve intended goals. The latter course is riskier but its consequences can be more enduring and its mandate more powerful, as both Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan demonstrated.

First, I don't know why he needs to link LBJ and Reagan. What risk did Reagan take? Selling tax cuts is easy, and Reaganomics is an utter failure.

Second, LBJ had a Senate majority of 66 Democrats. With two more Democrats, President Obama would not have needed to compromise on the stimulus. With 66 Democrats, a robust public option would likely have passed. So while Reich is trying to argue away the dictum that politics is the art of the possible, he's conceding that the Democratic majority in Congress is fragile. In fact, for the most part the coalition has only comprised 59 Senators, including Ben Nelson.

[zipplewrath]

7. Union crushing

Reagan, with the ATC strike, crushed a union, and was able to survive politically. That's a risk alot of people thought he would pay for with the "Reagan democrats" that were heavily union.

[ProSense]

8. "That's a risk alot of people thought he would pay for " Oh please,

how is union crushing a risk for a Republican? And Reagan Democrats are simply among the DLC assholes, who are still trying to crush unions.

[zipplewrath]

9. Actually, they were union

It was one of the strange parts about the Reagan Democrats, they bought into much of the social agenda of the Moral Majority. That and the NRA/2nd amendment crowd. There were real concerns he would alienate the very group credited with electing him. However, the "solid union" vote had been waining for years and PATCO had managed to come off looking stupid, and annoying, and Reagan got away with it. I tend to agree, I often think that is where the DLC got their idea. I suspect it is where the concept of triangulation got started. You could pick off your opposition by isolating them.

[ProSense]

10. Yeah, in the same way

that Harold Ford supports unions. The problem is that everyone thinks that because someone belongs to a union, they're less gullible, less self-loathing and less likely to vote against their interests. There were union members who supported Giulliani.

[zipplewrath]

13. Yup

The union movement was a victim of their own success. They got laws passed to ensure employment practices that they used to have to actually negotatiate to achieve. And then companies started providing union like benefits to ensure that the employees wouldn't actually vote for unions. Then the concept gets started that some how unions aren't needed anymore. And pretty soon jobs are disappearing and wages are being cut, and benefits are disappearing, but hey you can own 115 glocks and Terry Schiavo lived 3 months longer.

[flamingdem]

3. Know-it-all "democratic" twits build careers out of dissing Obama these days nt

[impik]

4. I learned my lesson: Never rec any OP before actually reading the whole article

How foolish of me.

[kpete]

5. personally,

i posted it for the cartoon, kpete

[ProSense]

6. It's a great cartoon.

Thanks.

[impik]

12. The cartton is great. I agree.

[AspenRose]

14. I didn't know the GOP changed their mascot to a vulture.

It fits, though. }(

[treestar]

16. What's with claiming he could have done better with bigger "risks"

what risks? How does this pundit know?

[4_TN_TITANS]

17. I love that toon....

And how accurate - having to drag the asses along kicking & screaming...

[Drunken Irishman]

18. That's a fantastic cartoon.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

20. Aye, it is.

[DailyGrind51]

19. Had he only prosecuted the Bush administration!

He received no quid pro quo from Republicans for "moving forward".

[DFLforever]

21. At least he's still alive

which I'm not sure he would be under your scenario.