On Monday, we got the answer: he announced a pay freeze for federal workers. This was an announcement that had it all. It was transparently cynical; it was trivial in scale, but misguided in direction; and by making the announcement, Mr. Obama effectively conceded the policy argument to the very people who are seeking — successfully, it seems — to destroy him. So I guess we are, in fact, seeing what Mr. Obama is made of. – Paul Krugman
From Matt Bai, something I’ve been writing for 20 months and counting:
The body of Mr. Obama’s writing and experiences before he became a presidential candidate would suggest that he is instinctively pragmatic, typical of an emerging generation that sees all political dogma — be it ’60s liberalism or ’80s conservatism — as anachronistic. Privately, Mr. Obama has described himself, at times, as essentially a Blue Dog Democrat, referring to the shrinking caucus of fiscally conservative members of the party.
…it leads us back to Mr. Obama’s George Stephanopoulos interview in 2007, which foreshadowed it all. Including that he’s not only conservative, but sheepishly so, making the entire political exercise in which we’re all engaged a farce. If Mr. Obama could at least act with courage of his inner conservative that could at least be respected.
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