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Conventional Wisdom (outside the WH and perhaps within) says that Obama needs to do two things to win in 2012.
1) Move to the right.
2) Preside over a tangibly improving economy.
The first precludes the second. The only government actions that can possibly improve the economy in the 16-20 months we have until voter's minds are made up about the economy for 2012 are strong left.
There are no right-wing solutions for creating a lot of jobs in 16-20 months. It's not just that they wouldn't work, they don't even exist. An honest right winger (yeah, I know) would even admit as much, since they are ostensibly anti-interventionist.
Now then, let's revisit th two things Obama needs...
1) Preside over a tangibly improving economy.
2) Why the fuck is there a #2?
If the economy improves a lot the incumbent president is usually fine.
This is what the pragmatic (sic) centrists (sic) have never gotten. If you get the results then nobody gives a rat's ass about your ideology. Since only left solutions could have (or can) produce the desired results then the pragmatic political program is left.
By the way... Ronald Reagan never created a fucking job in his life. 1984's "Morning in America" economic hope party was the creation of the Federal Reserve just as the dire recession of 1981-1982 was the creation of the Federal Reserve. The Fed (Volker) raised interest rates a zillion times to induce the recession and then cut interest rates a zillion times to spark the recovery. It would have played out the same no matter had Carter still been President except that during the recession the government would have been more humane and during the recovery the deficit would have decreased.
Since the option of the Fed cutting interest rates a zillion times does not exist today (since Fed interest rates are zero) only dramatic left-leaning government intervention can bring about rapid positive change.
So what are talking about here is a situation where Obama probably cannot cannot win no matter what he does because the pugs have enough power to prevent any economic improvement. But Obama might as well try to fight for those things that could get him re-elected, even though they are long-shots. Moving right will not help Obama if the economy stays like this. He can bomb Iran and caper around in Rich Iott's SS uniform and it won't help.
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