Obama's Speech

Was awesome. That's not much of a surprise; his speeches are usually awesome, and this one, which was set up as Obama playing offense and making a big, bold proposal, was primed to be especially so. My attitude going into the speech was that, whatever Obama himself might say to the contrary, this was entirely political grandstanding, the fulcrum of his Clinton-to-Truman pivot. As a purely political speech, I thought it was great. He made his proposal, he spent a lot of time hammering home the message that these are sensible ideas to help people, and he included a bit of conditional pounding. As in, he said to the Republicans, "you guys are f@cking nuts if you don't pass this," which sets him up to respond to their not passing it by saying simply, "you guys are f@cking nuts." As I've said to some people over the past couple of days being back at school, if Obama does not start making this pivot, and hard, after Republicans inevitably refuse to pass any component of this plan, then I'm going to start getting very disillusioned with him very quickly.

However, events of the past twelve-or-so hours have got me thinking that maybe it isn't as inevitable as it might be. Republicans, including not just Mr. Oh-Please-Can't-I-Make-A-Deal Boehner but also Mr. Oh-No-You-Most-Certainly-Cannot Cantor, are talking in terms of finding common ground and looking for elements of Obama's proposals that they can agree on. That surprises me. In particular, it doesn't feel like they're setting themselves up very well for total refusal down the line. I hope Obama can use the Republicans' refusal, if it comes, as a sledgehammer to crush them with, and in particular as a tool to get people to blame them and not him for general world-suckitude come November '12, but I would much prefer to that scenario of embracing economic failure and trying to pin the blame on his opponents a world in which we can actually make the world better. So if they'll let him pass some of this plan, then great! What Obama most definitely should not do, however, is engage in bargaining with them. If they'll let him pass all the plan, then pass all the plan. If they'll let him pass some of the plan, then pass some of the plan. But don't get into trading specific spending cuts for this plan. The American Jobs Act (an unsurpassable name, for what it's worth!) includes a provision "paying for" itself by instructing the supercommittee to make additional deficit reductions that pay for it. That's all the offsetting you need. If Republicans aren't okay with that, then they can bugger off, and we go back to the original plan of hammering their asses for obstructionism and economic sabotage. Don't get bogged down, and it'll be hard to mess this up.