Eric Alterman: Obama's Finally Ready to Rumble

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-08/obama-finally-ready-to-rumble-on-boehner-tax-cuts/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL1


Obama's Finally Ready to Rumble

by Eric Alterman


We already know that the Obama team knows how to run for office and we know it knows how to pass legislation. The worry is, it doesn’t know how to do the former after it’s done the latter. On Wednesday in Cleveland, with his party apparently heading for a historic humiliation in November, President Obama finally decided to return to campaign mode and see what might be done to save the second half of his presidency.

Judged on its own terms, the president’s approach made quite a bit of sense. The policy itself is quite sound as befits the superwonk in chief. As Simon Johnson, who has found Obama far too wimpy in the past, acknowledges, “the Obama administration has finally begun to make some sensible proposals. These include: temporary tax breaks for business investment (allowing firms to deduct all their capital spending through 2011, which would hopefully bring forward hiring and reduce unemployment), tax credits for research and development, and a more coherent strategy for infrastructure development (although this takes time to have effects).” James Galbraith, another critic from the left, also finds himself in a far better humor than usual. Crediting Obama with a “confidence trick,” but in a good way, he argues that Obama is doing what smart Democrats have done in the past: Use government to induce corporate America “to take a chance, and hire some workers.” In addition to the tax cuts aimed at business hires, Obama is proposing to, um, stimulate the economy with $50 billion in infrastructure spending. This has no chance of passing at a time when Democrats are running away from the first stimulus—despite its impressive success in helping to prevent a complete meltdown of the economy—but many Democrats, grateful for small favors, are happy to see Obama willing to propose something he knows has no hope of passing. All that Rodney King “Why Can’t We All Get Along” stuff didn’t work out so well. Finally, in the 13th or 14th round, the president is putting up his dukes and slapping the other fellow around a bit.

And if you doubt that, take a look at the direct hit he was willing to take at the already-measuring-the-drapes-in-the-Speaker’s-office John Boehner. Personally, and strictly from an entertainment standpoint, I am only slightly less eager to see Boehner as speaker than I would be to see Sarah Palin as president. The man can barely hold together a coherent thought long enough to strangle it. When asked by a friendly Chris Wallace on Fox whether he was aware that “a number of top economists say what we need is more economic stimulus,” Boehner replied, with breathtaking obtuseness, “Well, I don’t need to see GDP numbers or to listen to economists. All I need to do is listen to the American people, because they’ve been asking the question now for 18 months, ‘Where are the jobs?’”

As president, Obama must be more decorous, of course, than merely mocking the man. But by complaining that when Boehner appeared at the same forum he offered “no new policies... no new ideas. There was just the same philosophy we already tried for the last decade—the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: Cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations,” well, if you closed your eyes, Boehner morphed into Bush and we were back in 2008 again.

more...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-08/obama-finally-ready-to-rumble-on-boehner-tax-cuts/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL1

[ashling]

1. Obama's Finally Ready to Rumble

I hope ... but haven't we heard this before. Seems like it generally passes in about a week.

[babylonsister]

2. He's focused on the midterms and calling out the rethugs for

what they are. That's my take and what he's done the past two speeches he's made. I don't know what will satisfy you.

[yowzayowzayowza]

3. Thx, BS. K&R. n/t