What? You mean there are highlightable "substantive differences" between the White House and mad-dog Republicans? Who knew?

Plus: A heartfelt ta-ta to T-Paw!

WASHINGTON -- As the economy worsens, President Obama and his senior aides are considering whether to adopt a more combative approach on economic issues, seeking to highlight substantive differences with Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail rather than continuing to pursue elusive compromises, advisers to the president say.

-- from "White House Debates Fight on Economy" by Binyamin Appelbaum and Helene Cooper, in today's NYT

by Ken

On the whole I have no quarrel with the argument by friends and colleagues on the Left that the Obama administration, far from being outfoxed and outnegotiated by the marauding hordes of the Far Right, is in fact winding up with essentially the right-wing agenda espoused by his fellow New Democrats and erstwhile DLC types. (They call themselves "centrists," of course, but of course they're only centrists measured against the out-of-the-galaxy position of the New Right, in rocket-powered space flight from reality.) This certainly fits the wide range of crucial issues where this administration has shown little discontinuity with its predecessor, or is even farther right -- with the additional consideration that on many of these issues this administration has achieved right-wing goals that a Republican one couldn't have.

There's just one thing that keeps me from wholly embracing the "Obama is getting just what he wants" theory: that in the process he has allowed himself -- no, made himself -- to look like a bumbling asshole, wide open not just to general contempt and ridicule but to near-unanswerable nonstop assault by Republicans of record-breaking stupidity and corruption.

Take the above-noted report by Binyamin Appelbaum and Helen Cooper in this morning's NYT. What? you say. There are "substantive differences with Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail," differences that might just possibly be subject to public highlighting? Who could have known? Stop the presses!

Mr. Obama's senior adviser, David Plouffe, and his chief of staff, William M. Daley, want him to maintain a pragmatic strategy of appealing to independent voters by advocating ideas that can pass Congress, even if they may not have much economic impact. These include free trade agreements and improved patent protections for inventors.

But others, including Gene Sperling, Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser, say public anger over the debt ceiling debate has weakened Republicans and created an opening for bigger ideas like tax incentives for businesses that hire more workers, according to Congressional Democrats who share that view. Democrats are also pushing the White House to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

Even if the ideas cannot pass Congress, they say, the president would gain a campaign issue by pushing for them.

One might observe that those free trade agreements and improved patent protections for inventors rank among the stupidest and most self-defeating (in terms of economic sense) advanced in the history of the American republic. But then, Bill Daley has a reputation as a walking cesspool of political reaction and fiscal corruption to uphold. As my colleague Debra Cooper points out, in the event that the O-man manages to get reelected, he will presumably take it as a "mandate" to pursue . . . a right-wing Republican agenda, starting with gutting Medicare and Social Security.

But this is still all nitpicking relative to the question: How brilliant a strategist is the strategist who makes himself look like a ragdoll devoid of intelligence or principle?

Administration officials, frustrated by the intransigence of House Republicans, have increasingly concluded that the best thing Mr. Obama can do for the economy may be winning a second term, with a mandate to advance his ideas on deficit reduction, entitlement changes, housing policy and other issues.

Mr. Obama plans to spend time this weekend considering his options, advisers said. The White House expects to unveil new job-creation proposals in early September.

And those job-creation proposals, one has to guess, will make small children laugh -- while their parents cry, and scream bloody murder about the imbecile in the White House. Is this really something a person does intentionally to himself?

POSTSCRIPT: THE WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN SPEAKS

By the way, with regard to this debate on economic strategy reportedly raging inside the administration, Appelbaum and Cooper report: "Dan Pfeiffer, the White House director of communications, said that there was no internal debate."

Oh.

Well . . . as Gilda Radner's Emily Litella might have said: "Never mind."


TA-TA, T-PAW! MAKE SURE THE DOOR SHUTS BEHIND YOU!

So we won't have former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to kick around anymore. This emptiest of right-wing-hack empty suits just wasn't crazy enough for hard-core GOP nominee-pickers. How embarrassing to be shown up by a fellow Minnesotan without a usefully functioning brain cell in her head!

Maybe ol' T-Paw would like to remind us what made him think that anyone not (a) related to him or (b) on his payroll thought he could be a serious candidate for the presidential nomination. On second thought, never mind. With luck, we'll never hear the slug's name again.

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