Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Turns out, Obama's a good negotiator. For a Republican

Progressives, with their pesky little concerns about income inequality, unemployment, and lost homes, got fucked again.  And what did I tell you?  Ezra Klein is impressed:
...The White House disappeared into a closed room with the Republicans and cut a deal that they'd made no effort to sell to progressives. When the deal was cut, the president took an oblique shot at their preferences, saying "the American people didn’t send us here to wage symbolic battles or win symbolic victories." And this came a mere week or two after the White House announced a federal pay freeze. The pattern, for progressives, seems clear: The White House uses them during elections, but doesn't listen to, or consult them, while governing. In fact, it insults them, and then tells them to quiet down, they got the best bargain possible, even if it wasn't the one they'd asked for, or been promised.

If you're worried about stimulus, joblessness  and the working poor, this is probably a better deal than you thought you were going to get. "It’s a bigger deal than anyone expected," says Bob Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "Both sides gave more expected and both sides got more than expected." The White House walked out of the negotiations with more stimulus than anyone had seen coming. But they did it in a way that made their staunchest allies feel left behind, and in many cases, utterly betrayed.
That the Obama administration has turned out to be fairly good at the inside Washington game of negotiations and legislative compromise and quite bad at communicating to the public and keeping their base excited is not what most would have predicted during the 2008 campaign. But it's true.
The administration is only good at the "inside Washington game of negotiations and legislative compromise" if you believe they are, in fact, stealth Republicans instead of Democrats, constantly ceding ground and seeding the turf for their wealthy donors.. 

Which I do.

And it's "only a better deal than you thought you were going to get" if the deal is made by capitulators who make promises they have no intention of keeping, and, even with the polls and the facts and decency and morality on their side, they give in without the fight the issue deserves.

Which they did.

And Ezra Klein can only write this tripe if he is a Stepfordized beltway liberal-turned-insider who needs to grease the wheels of Washington access so he, too, can end up with his own show on MSNBC.

Which he is.

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