Eleven-Dimensional Chess After All?

I'm not going to argue policy here. Policy has been steadily getting worse since John Boehner's fingers closed around the gavel, and it is not the point of this blog post to argue whether Obama's been doing a good job of softening that blow. But consider the following: having spent the last several months mounting a broad campaign for economic stimulus (not under that name, of course) and, rather successfully, blaming Republicans for blocking said stimulus, Obama got to make a statement today criticizing Republicans for blocking efforts toward deficit reduction! This strikes me as approximately as win-win as you can get, politically (if you believe that such messaging matters at all). Policy wonks talk about how we should have deficit-financed stimulus now and fiscal consolidation later, but we need both. Well, Obama has positioned himself so that he is simultaneously the ardent champion of "stimulus NOW!" and the stalwart defender of "fiscal responsibility over the long-term," with the wicked Republicans his antagonists in both conflicts. Personally I'm inclined to think that this kind of messaging matters a tiny little bit around the margins, but that could be important in a close election (and I don't think that Obama's going to lose in anything other than a close election). Given how predictable it was that a) the Supercommittee would fail, and b) Republicans would bitch about actually having to let the defense cuts get triggered, it sort of makes you wonder whether he meant for this to happen.