What Once was Naivete is Now Idiocy

Update: Brad DeLong appears to confirm that Obama’s inner circle would be best served by being placed in a circular firing squad, given live ammo, and being told to “do what is right.”

The plethora of disingenuous claims that Barack Obama “won” with the McConnell-Obama “compromise” are legend. See, for instance, the idiocy of Andrew Sullivan (of which Andrew Samwick is too generous when he describes it as “poor political tactics“; see also Brad DeLong), and the Administration’s disingenuous “what ‘we’ won” chart.

The big question was how this is supposed to stimulate the economy. Those of us who argued that it would do damage noted that it was the first move.

Obama has so far played (as I noted earlier): 1 g4 e5

Now, Mark Thoma discovers that he really does intend 2 f3 and then will wait for the Republican’s next move:

The second part, now being teed up by the White House and key Senate Democrats, is a scheme for the president to embrace much of the Bowles-Simpson plan — including cuts in Social Security. This is to be unveiled, according to well-placed sources, in the president’s State of the Union address.

followed soon by what may be the stupidest serious paragraph ever written by someone who isn’t Donald Luskin:

White House strategists believe this can also give Obama “credit” for getting serious about deficit reduction — now more urgent with the nearly $900 billion increase in the deficit via the tax cut deal.

We have always heard that the first Black President would be subject to an increased threat of assassination. Only now do we discover that he intends to commit seppuku.

The optimistic version of his chances for re-election now appears to be the case presented by “Norman” in comments to my previous post (slightly edited for clarity):

If “O” continues his so called compromise—giving in to whatever the right wants—doesn’t pull a LBJ and gets the nod in 2012, the Repubs nominate Sarah [Palin], then it’s quite possible he could win again. Only this time, the Republicans would be a deciding factor in the win. Why? Because they know he will cave on just about everything they ask for.

The only quibble there may be the “just about.”