The blog of a North Country Swede!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Ahhhh ... is Obama getting his groove back?

Y'know ... maybe Obama is learning. Maybe it's beginning to dawn on him that Timothy Geithner was more interested in his own financial services career than in Obama's political one ... and making big banks whole while the people flounder.

But Obama still has a steep climb out of the hole he dug himself following Tim's guidance.

Medical costs? Obama gave up the public option and now has to cut medicare and medicaid to keep us from going over the edge ... or so the political conventional wisdom tells us. And he had the hammer of the single-payer system to beat the Republicans over the head with if they didn't want the public option. (I couldn't believe it when he folded so early in the struggle.)

Taxes? Obama gave up on letting the Bush Tax cuts die last December (2010) and now has to use political capital--if he has any left--to call for the Buffet Rule. (I wasn't as surprised by his not letting the Bush Tax cuts die after the ludicrous surrender of the public option in healthcare.)

However ...

Tom Friedman's column today in The New York Times,Are We Going to Roll Up Our Sleeves or Limp On?, said a lot:
"Mr. Obama gave us the credible $447 billion jobs program, but his deficit reduction plan announced on Monday to pay for it and trim long-term spending does not rise to the scale we need."
Like I said, maybe Obama is learning how to get his groove back, but he still has a long way to go before he's there ... and it still doesn't look like he will be there by next year's election ... which is a damn shame ... really ... when you think of what the Republicans are bringing to the table. Ah, what might have been

Ah well, he gives good speeches ... so he can always earn a living on the dinner circuit.