Sick of This Place – Slapstick
I wanted to write a post about all the stimulus shenanigans, but I frankly have no time for something like that. Fortunately, publius wrote my post for me.
So, yeah, what publius said.
I’ll just add that I do think the effort to reach out and even compromise and all that has been worthwhile, and I’m glad it was undertaken. But I’m also glad that Obama is also willing to take the kid-gloves off a little bit. It’s important to note that this only happened after it became clear just how happy they were to stick to their trenches (and by “they” I’m willing to include the Nelsens and Liebermans and other “moderate” Dems), put their fingers in their ears and hum “Reagan cut taxes and it saaaaaaaaved the economy.”
I really think it would be better if, on the next big issue, Obama goes right back and tries all over again. The other day I referenced the idea of recognizing that there’s also a positive equilibrium to the prisoner’s dilemma – I still think that’s achievable. In the long term, you’d hope that everyone involved would realize that the only actual way to win at the prisoner’s dilemma (much like “Nuclear War”) is to just not play – but that might be asking a bit too much. For now, I’ll settle for a good-not-great stimulus bill and the possibility of a real health care bill. After that, climate, and then the world I suppose…