Is It All Obama’s Fault?
By DAVID BROOKS AND GAIL COLLINS
September 14, 2011, 12:31 pm
Source - New York Times
In The Conversation, David Brooks and Gail Collins talk between columns every Wednesday
President Obama in Ohio, on Sept. 13, speaking about the American Jobs Act.
Gail Collins: David, I’m so happy to be back conversing with you again! When I left in May you were very depressed about the way the country was going, but I see that things have changed and now you’re really, really, really depressed about the way the country is going.
David Brooks: It’s so great to have you back. You went to Texas, where Governor Perry’s free-market policies have led to the creation of 23 billion jobs, most of them involve cleaning up the roadkill from his exercise runs. I went to Kenya, where I was a resident scholar at the Barack Obama Birthplace and Presidential Library.
Gail Collins: Ah, the birther debate. You know, there are days when I really miss the Donald Trump presidential candidacy.
David Brooks: Meanwhile, in our absence Mitt Romney has: a.) lost ground in the polls and b.) turned into a polished, confident supercampaigner. I wonder’s if he’s on some authenticity hormone.
Gail Collins: My question today is — if the country’s a mess, how much do you blame the president? I know in the past you’ve at times been a fan, and I think the White House regards you as the kind of Republican that would make bipartisanship work. If only there were a few hundred more of you in Congress.
David Brooks: I’m sort of on a fatalism kick these days. Financial crises stink. They typically lead to five or six years of crappy growth and high unemployment. Governments in this fix inevitably ramp up their spending to try to reverse the slide and it basically doesn’t work. You can ameliorate the terribleness, but you can’t reverse it. The problems are just too big.
I blame Obama a bit for not learning from history, for believing, overconfidently, that he could do something about the stagnation. I think he could have developed an effective strategy to tell the country: Hey, it’s going to be rough. We’ll do what we can but our main task is to address the structural problems that will turn this temporary stagnation into long-term decline: debt, tax reform, labor market reform, human capital.
Gail Collins: I’m sorry, I can’t deal with the here’s-a-recession-let’s-cut-spending thing. Putting hands over ears and making loud, irritating humming sounds.
David Brooks: Obama wasn’t alone in believing he had more control over the economy than he really did. But he’s made things a bit worse for himself by trying to take advantage of the crisis to tackle ancillary problems and drive moderates into the other camp.
Gail Collins: I keep thinking back on the 2008 campaign. Boy, was that a long time ago. John Edwards was a champion of the poor. Feminists were all excited about the first woman president. Here in New York, Charles Rangel was the Lion of Lenox Avenue and Anthony Weiner was the most promising up-and-comer. Please, stop me before I fling myself out of a window.
David Brooks: I remember that year too. Wasn’t that the year Ron Paul ran for president? I wonder what happened to that guy. I think he tried to escape to Mexico and was stymied by the immigration fence.
Gail Collins: Anyhow, Barack Obama won the nomination by promising to end the brain-dead politicization of Washington. And he got elected! Then two years later, the country turned around and elected a House Republican majority that has absolutely sworn not to work with the Democrats on anything. I realize this was not generally the work of the same voters, but there must be a couple of people out there who voted for Obama in ’08 and the Tea Party in ’10 and I want an explanation.
David Brooks: They fear the country is going down the toilet and they want some big fundamental change but they are not quite sure what it is. Obama promised change but in office he has tried to be Mr. Long Term and also Mr. Short Term, Mr. Liberal but also Mr. Hamiltonian Centrist. Mr. Post-Partisan Transcendence and Mr. Partisan Streetfighter. There are only so many divides any leader can fudge.
Gail Collins: A lot of people — especially people on the left — are unhappy with Obama for not yelling at the Republicans more, flinging down more gauntlets, drawing more lines in the sand, and doing all the other stuff you’re supposed to do when you’re really determined to show you’re not a political wimp. I don’t think he’s a wimp — he’s been pretty steely when it comes to foreign affairs. But I do think he’s a person who was specifically elected not to play hyper-partisan politics. How can we expect him to be good at something we picked him to avoid?
David Brooks: This has been one of those periods when I’m so glad I’m no longer on the left. For 50 years liberals have dominated Hollywood, the media, the universities, publishing and every mode of communication with the possible exception of talk radio and Ted Nugent concerts. In all this time they have tried to get the country to think more like them. They have failed. The country has swung to the right. Distrust of government is at an all-time high. And now they want Barack Obama to come in and promulgate the Great Society II on a center-right country.
That’s crazy. Liberals who wish Obama were more forthright should look in the mirror and ask: Why have we been unable to win more converts to our side?
Gail Collins: It’s true that Americans don’t like government. Until they need it. Or until they get used to it and then somebody comes along and tries to take away their Social Security. Obama’s speech to Congress was good. Maybe he can remake himself into a different kind of politician. Although we did elect him because we thought he was genuine.
David Brooks: The speech was good. Like our colleague Ross Douthat, I wish this had been the first stimulus package, although maybe double in size. The political world would be different today if he’d started off with these policies.
I’m curious about how he pays for it. The leaks so far have come in two tranches. First there was the story he would pay for it by closing loopholes for the rich, like the charitable giving loophole. If that’s the main source then I consider the whole exercise to be nothing but cynicism. That idea couldn’t even get a vote when both houses of Congress were controlled by Democrats.
The second tranche of leaks suggests he’s willing to touch Medicare. That would be politically courageous and a sign that like during the debt-ceiling fight, he is willing to be bold and serious.
Gail Collins: Bold and serious didn’t get him very far then. Although it might be a good title for a politics-based soap opera.
David Brooks: As always, I hover between the hope that Obama will emerge as a great leader, who will break through the logjam, and the despair that somehow it’s just not going to work out and we’ll all revert to the trenches.
QUOTES:
1. I blame Obama a bit for not learning from history, for believing he could do something about the stagnation.
2. Obama was elected not to play hyper-partisan politics. How can we expect him to be good at something we picked him to avoid?
By DAVID BROOKS AND GAIL COLLINS
September 14, 2011, 12:31 pm
Source - New York Times
In The Conversation, David Brooks and Gail Collins talk between columns every Wednesday President Obama in Ohio, on Sept. 13, speaking about the American Jobs Act.Gail Collins: David, I’m so happy to be back conversing with you again! When I left in May you were very depressed about the way the country was going, but I see that things have changed and now you’re really, really, really depressed about the way the country is going.
David Brooks: It’s so great to have you back. You went to Texas, where Governor Perry’s free-market policies have led to the creation of 23 billion jobs, most of them involve cleaning up the roadkill from his exercise runs. I went to Kenya, where I was a resident scholar at the Barack Obama Birthplace and Presidential Library.
Gail Collins: Ah, the birther debate. You know, there are days when I really miss the Donald Trump presidential candidacy.
David Brooks: Meanwhile, in our absence Mitt Romney has: a.) lost ground in the polls and b.) turned into a polished, confident supercampaigner. I wonder’s if he’s on some authenticity hormone.
Gail Collins: My question today is — if the country’s a mess, how much do you blame the president? I know in the past you’ve at times been a fan, and I think the White House regards you as the kind of Republican that would make bipartisanship work. If only there were a few hundred more of you in Congress.
David Brooks: I’m sort of on a fatalism kick these days. Financial crises stink. They typically lead to five or six years of crappy growth and high unemployment. Governments in this fix inevitably ramp up their spending to try to reverse the slide and it basically doesn’t work. You can ameliorate the terribleness, but you can’t reverse it. The problems are just too big.
I blame Obama a bit for not learning from history, for believing, overconfidently, that he could do something about the stagnation. I think he could have developed an effective strategy to tell the country: Hey, it’s going to be rough. We’ll do what we can but our main task is to address the structural problems that will turn this temporary stagnation into long-term decline: debt, tax reform, labor market reform, human capital.
Gail Collins: I’m sorry, I can’t deal with the here’s-a-recession-let’s-cut-spending thing. Putting hands over ears and making loud, irritating humming sounds.
David Brooks: Obama wasn’t alone in believing he had more control over the economy than he really did. But he’s made things a bit worse for himself by trying to take advantage of the crisis to tackle ancillary problems and drive moderates into the other camp.
Gail Collins: I keep thinking back on the 2008 campaign. Boy, was that a long time ago. John Edwards was a champion of the poor. Feminists were all excited about the first woman president. Here in New York, Charles Rangel was the Lion of Lenox Avenue and Anthony Weiner was the most promising up-and-comer. Please, stop me before I fling myself out of a window.
David Brooks: I remember that year too. Wasn’t that the year Ron Paul ran for president? I wonder what happened to that guy. I think he tried to escape to Mexico and was stymied by the immigration fence.
Gail Collins: Anyhow, Barack Obama won the nomination by promising to end the brain-dead politicization of Washington. And he got elected! Then two years later, the country turned around and elected a House Republican majority that has absolutely sworn not to work with the Democrats on anything. I realize this was not generally the work of the same voters, but there must be a couple of people out there who voted for Obama in ’08 and the Tea Party in ’10 and I want an explanation.
David Brooks: They fear the country is going down the toilet and they want some big fundamental change but they are not quite sure what it is. Obama promised change but in office he has tried to be Mr. Long Term and also Mr. Short Term, Mr. Liberal but also Mr. Hamiltonian Centrist. Mr. Post-Partisan Transcendence and Mr. Partisan Streetfighter. There are only so many divides any leader can fudge.
Gail Collins: A lot of people — especially people on the left — are unhappy with Obama for not yelling at the Republicans more, flinging down more gauntlets, drawing more lines in the sand, and doing all the other stuff you’re supposed to do when you’re really determined to show you’re not a political wimp. I don’t think he’s a wimp — he’s been pretty steely when it comes to foreign affairs. But I do think he’s a person who was specifically elected not to play hyper-partisan politics. How can we expect him to be good at something we picked him to avoid?
David Brooks: This has been one of those periods when I’m so glad I’m no longer on the left. For 50 years liberals have dominated Hollywood, the media, the universities, publishing and every mode of communication with the possible exception of talk radio and Ted Nugent concerts. In all this time they have tried to get the country to think more like them. They have failed. The country has swung to the right. Distrust of government is at an all-time high. And now they want Barack Obama to come in and promulgate the Great Society II on a center-right country.
That’s crazy. Liberals who wish Obama were more forthright should look in the mirror and ask: Why have we been unable to win more converts to our side?
Gail Collins: It’s true that Americans don’t like government. Until they need it. Or until they get used to it and then somebody comes along and tries to take away their Social Security. Obama’s speech to Congress was good. Maybe he can remake himself into a different kind of politician. Although we did elect him because we thought he was genuine.
David Brooks: The speech was good. Like our colleague Ross Douthat, I wish this had been the first stimulus package, although maybe double in size. The political world would be different today if he’d started off with these policies.
I’m curious about how he pays for it. The leaks so far have come in two tranches. First there was the story he would pay for it by closing loopholes for the rich, like the charitable giving loophole. If that’s the main source then I consider the whole exercise to be nothing but cynicism. That idea couldn’t even get a vote when both houses of Congress were controlled by Democrats.
The second tranche of leaks suggests he’s willing to touch Medicare. That would be politically courageous and a sign that like during the debt-ceiling fight, he is willing to be bold and serious.
Gail Collins: Bold and serious didn’t get him very far then. Although it might be a good title for a politics-based soap opera.
David Brooks: As always, I hover between the hope that Obama will emerge as a great leader, who will break through the logjam, and the despair that somehow it’s just not going to work out and we’ll all revert to the trenches.
QUOTES:
1. I blame Obama a bit for not learning from history, for believing he could do something about the stagnation.
2. Obama was elected not to play hyper-partisan politics. How can we expect him to be good at something we picked him to avoid?