Heck of a job, Barry

If only events had slowed and stabilized so our somnolent president could run the new play he had finally figured out. He took a year to work up the mindset and the courage to throw a punch at insurers, and the results were delightful. Encouraged, he began to apply the same medicine to the bankers and Wall St. I was contemplating being at least a less disgruntled camper.

And then the Gulf of Mexico has a massive coronary -- an environmental 9/11, as Tom Friedman accurately described it. And as if to prove himself Bush III definitively, Barack Obama stands like a deer in the headlights, helplessly watching the epic catastrophe unfold. Issuing stern, empty warnings. Sending Cabinet secretaries out to issue stern, empty warnings.

You cannot make this stuff up. The signature event that tanked Object-Lesson-in-Chief... in the exact same place on the planet... and At-Least-I'm-Not-W grabs for... W's playbook.

Well, my pet goat is lying on the beach, choked with oil.

Yes!

In the immortal words of Marv Albert... Yes I said yes they will Yes.

Encouraging - Updated

Are we headed toward sanity? This is exactly the right battle to pick next -- and this would be a hell of a second punch to throw. Of course, the proof, the pudding, and all that... But, might our president actually have grokked the right political lesson? Is he gonna start throwing combinations? Be still, my hopey heart.

Update: Even if Krugman is right that there is little chance of financial reform before November -- which seems entirely plausible -- that doesn't alter the political calculus. The main point, politically, is for Obama and the Dems to get out there and throw punch after punch. Frankly, I will be astonished if they don't. This isn't rocket science, it's sweet science.

Update 2: More grist. As His Shrillness's latest column suggests, it's now down to the politics. Shelby and others will attempt Orwellian FUD, so our president must get out on the stump and make it clear, forcefully, daily, unambiguously, that he and his administration regard banks as bad guys. As with the last month's push for the ersatz healthcare bill, the imperative is no longer to argue the fine points -- it's to clarify the sides in the battle.

Finally

In the service of truth, it must be said: Over the past month, and culminating tonight, Barack Obama probably saved his presidency. Not because the healthcare bill is good – it isn’t. Not because he has grown a coherent ideology or raison d’etre for his Administration – he hasn’t. We needed an FDR, and we still don’t have anything remotely like that. But at least our Vacuum-in-Chief has thrown his first punch.

David Sanger in tomorrow’s Times – with unintended irony – describes the moment thus: “After the bitterest of debates, Mr. Obama proved that he was willing to fight for something that moved him to his core.” Of course, that “something” wasn’t a serious healthcare bill. Rather, it was his own political future. Not very inspiring for the rest of us, to be sure – but it’s a start. His lizard brain, at least, has awakened. He has grokked that he had to do more than float like a butterfly if he wanted to avoid becoming a lame duck by this November – or by tomorrow morning.

So, for the past month, he actually fought, actually (yes) demonized somebody, actually defined the terms of a debate. In other words, he actually engaged as a political actor. And the very salutary results of that engagement were evident on the floor of the House tonight. His enemy – our enemies – were forced to react, and their reactions committed them in public to a stance that will further marginalize them, will accelerate their collapse into white dwarf stardom. Republican after Republican rose to utter patently incoherent, untruthful and amoral nonsense. They voted as a bloc against their own type of plan (Romneycare writ larger). And the coup de grace came when Bart Stupak, of all people, rose to denounce their last-ditch obstructionist bid.

(It’s enough to make one speculate that the whole Stupak Amendment dance was pure kabuki from the get-go – a way to establish this no-name as the face of anti-choice, so he could, in the end, provide his blessing to Obama’s plan. Or not.)

Contra the Times editorialists, Barack Obama did not "put his presidency on the line for an accomplishment of historic proportions." His presidency was already on the line. He merely woke up to that fact. And the proportions here aren't anything like historic. It remains the thinnest of gruel, at best. At worst, it’s a betrayal of women, and a massively missed opportunity. Nonetheless, I’m pleased our president has taken this initial step. Maybe it’ll lead to another. In politics, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first punch.

Race to the bottom

Lou Dobbs wasn't an anomaly for CNN. And today's announcement of Erick Erickson's new gig is a twofer -- not only Fox envy, but MSNBC envy... a contest to see who can be the most misogynist. Ted Turner ought to be spinning in his... bed.

Mothers, don't let your children start out as Texans

Yes, it's spitting in the Internet wind, but still, they're not going gently into that good benight...

It can't get clearer than this

"Never before in all our history have these forces ["... business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering..."] been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speech to the Democratic National Convention, Madison Square Garden, 1936

“I know both those guys [Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase; and Lloyd Blankfein, CEO, Goldman Sachs]; they are very savvy businessmen. I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”
- Barack Obama, interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday.

Yes, as Paul Krugman and Simon Johnson say, this is some combination of clueless and perfidious. Yes, it's a profound betrayal of the Democratic Party. Yes, it's as politically insane as it is substantively deranged -- as Johnson points out, there is nothing about JPMorgan Chase or Goldman Sachs today that resembles the "free-market system." They are wastrel-son wards of the state.

But again -- my idee fixe of late -- it's also a fundamental failure of leadership, a total incapacity to do the job. In the interview, he goes on to talk about "say on pay" -- in his characteristic "no earth-shattering things going on here" way. He's emotionally out of touch with the majority of Americans... indeed, he's emotionally out of touch with himself. Such a person is unfit to lead.