Accomplishments Of Some Sort

Wow, really?

The folks at Politico have discovered that an unpopular President facing off against the candidate of an extremely unpopular party will try to turn the next presidential election on its head. Obama's team will attempt to portray the election as a choice, rather than a referendum.

They will, Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin report, attack Mitt Romney on personal grounds and on ideological grounds. (What a novel concept!) The President's team already has spoken of Romney's "weirdness" and will emphasize "his record as CEO of Bain Capital, a venture capital firm that was responsible for both creating and eliminating jobs. Obama officials intend to frame Romney as the very picture of greed in the great recession — a sort of political Gordon Gekko."

Cynically- though realistically- Obama critic Taylor Marsh thus observes

Let’s also not kid ourselves that Obama and Romney are all that different. Neither are ideologues. Both believe in nothing but their own fortunes and futures. Either would sell their soul to make a deal that makes them look good. And both are willing to do anything to get to live in the White House. They’re craven egotists who believe in their own persona and the preciousness of their own man self.

If only. If only "either would sell their soul to make a deal that makes them look good." With contact(s) inside the Administration, Robert Reich is "told"

So rather than fight for a bold jobs plan, the White House has apparently decided it’s politically wiser to continue fighting about the deficit. The idea is to keep the public focused on the deficit drama – to convince them their current economic woes have something to do with it, decry Washington’s paralysis over fixing it, and then claim victory over whatever outcome emerges from the process recently negotiated to fix it. They hope all this will distract the public’s attention from the President’s failure to do anything about continuing high unemployment and economic anemia.

Marsh would be embarrassed to realize that she is being generous. Far from demanding "a deal that makes (him) look good," President Obama will, as he has the past two years, "claim victory over whatever outcome emerges." It's not quality, but quantity, that counts, for then the President can maintain that he got it done. Whatever "it" is.

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