The Myth of Triangulation by Robert Reich

[kentuck]

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_myth_of_triangulation

<snip>
Shortly after the Democrats' "shellacking" last November, I phoned a friend in the White House who had served in the Clinton administration. "It's 1994 all over again," he said somewhat gloomily. "Now we move to the center." The supposed parallel between 2010 and 1994 is something of an article of faith in the Obama White House.

That's partly because so many of President Barack Obama's current aides worked for Bill Clinton and vividly recall Clinton's own shellacking in 1994. It's also because the Clinton story had a happy ending, at least electorally. The fact that Bill Clinton went on to win re-election is a source of comfort to the current White House as it looks ahead to 2012.

From this, many in the Obama White House have concluded that the president should follow Clinton's campaign script -- distancing himself from congressional Democrats, embracing further deficit reduction and deregulation, and seeking guidance from big business. If it worked for Clinton, it must work for Obama -- or so it's supposed.

The superficial logic that so often passes for thought in Washington typically sees causation where there's only correlation. In fact, there's no reason to believe that Clinton's lurch rightward at the start of 1995 is what won him re-election the following November. He was re-elected because of the strength of the economic recovery.

.........more

edited - added author's name

[hay rick]

1. Robert Reich. K&R

His conclusion: "Obama's challenge in 2012 has nothing to do with Bill Clinton's in 1996. He must fight the Republicans and explain to the public why he's doing so."

Doesn't sound like the guy I see in the White House.

[tavalon]

2. Thank you for adding the Author's name

[pscot]

3. As if that will happen

[yurbud]

4. what is really odd is Obama MADE this happen. He had both houses of Congress but

acted like his party controlled neither. He negotiated like a loser and thus became one.

It was almost a classic case of the Democrats being the Washington Generals to the GOP's Globetrotters even as the GOP was slashing the ball and defecating on the spectators and not even trying to play. It takes real work to lose to a party that acts like Charles Manson with a shave and a haircut.

[bvar22]

6. Great Kabuki, wasn't it?

One doesn't climb to the top of the heap in Chicago by being naive, powerless, or ignorant.
Obama got exactly what he wanted for himself, and for the people he works for.

[highplainsdem]

5. K&R