In the Arena

The Same Old Recovery

I disagree with Michael Scherer’s post below about Barack Obama changing the meaning of the word “recovery.” In an interview Obama did with me toward the end of the campaign, he made it clear that the economy would have to be transformed for the financial crisis to be truly resolved:

Finding the new driver of our economy is going to be critical. There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy … That’s going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office, assuming obviously that we have done enough to just stabilize the immediate economic situation. We’ve got a boat with a lot of leaks, and we need to get it into port. That’s what the financial rescue package is about. But once we get it into port, once the credit markets are functioning effectively, then it’s time for us to go back to the fundamentals of this economy.

At other points, he has said that health care and education reform are also crucial to a full recovery. (To be fair, he also said he’d want to be doing these things even if there weren’t an economic crisis.) But I do think he’s made it clear that something new would have to replace the “easy credit” economy that has crashed. His nomination, as he says above, is an alternative energy economy. (I have my doubts about whether a green economy will provide enough work to accomplish that, but who knows?)

Obama is a politician who sees the world strategically, who understands how all the pieces fit together. I have no doubt that in his mind recovery has two facets: fixing the financial crisis and building a new economy. And he’s right.

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  • FlownOver

    Blogfight! Blogfight!

  • http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/ sgwhiteinfla

    Dammit Joe Klein if you keep this sh*t up you are going to make me into a fan. Jeebus man good on you for calling Scherer’s bullsh*t out!!!

  • gysgt213

    Hold up a sec!!! Need to put some corn in the microwave.

  • stuartzechman

    I’m at the doctors on my iPhone, so I’ll make this short:
    .
    Joe Klein:
    .
    .Can’t you just say “the stimulus was too small”?

  • bitterpill8

    Let’s see how MS responds. The issue is one of Republican attampts to derail Obama’s programs with nothing to take its place. Classis Repug response. For Obama logic dictates a comprehensive approach, which did not take into account the Wall Street disaster in 2008. So this is going to be harder, more complicated and require time. Fine by me. Now tell the White House Press to deal with both reality and substance. Don’t reflect Republican talking points, Drudge-Politico frippery and selective polls. I guess this is asking too much of our Villagers. Joe has decided to engage: not going along to get along! Good.

  • choska

    Thanks Joe. It would be interesting to know if your ability to see issues clearly, and to write about them logically, is causing any damage to your career.
    .
    I can’t imagine that you are very popular amongst the rest of the Washington Press folks (Chuck Todd, Michael Scherer, Mike Allen, the entire staff of the Washington Post) that takes their cues from Drudge. And God knows that the folks at AIPAC probably have a hit out on you already.
    .
    Take good notes. When the powers that be finally get Time to fire you for being good at your job you’ll have a good book – and a lawsuit!
    .
    Keep fighting for facts and logic! The only reason I come to this blog anymore is because you are here actually reporting facts.

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    One of the ironies of Obama decrying the Boom/Bust economy is the fact that in includes vast swaths of the Clinton Presidency as well. Well before “Housing bubble” entered the vocabulary, Dot-com bubble was a household word.
    .
    You’d think the the Republicans would catch on that they can improve the economy AND blame a Democrat while embracing Obama’s current efforts!

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    Another thing worth remebering about Boom/Bust is that the boom half of the cycle is just as unhealthy and crippling as the bust portion. It’s the period during which people are extracting wealth from the economy while not putting anything of particular value into it.

  • http://elvisberg.wordpress.com Elvis Elvisberg

    Good post, Joe.
    -
    I am with choska here. The interesting issue isn’t on the definition of “recovery” (it’s pretty obvious what Obama’s talking about, that he’s been consistent, and that even if he were changing time horizons on us, it’s nothing that the American people can’t handle intellectually).
    -
    The interesting issue here is career incentives in the political industrial complex. Why would Scherer make such a hyperventilating post claiming that “Orwell would shudder” at Obama’s statement?
    -
    Josh Marshall has written that DC is “wired for Republicans”– that the media has been trained for decades to think that the Republicans are the cool, macho team and the Dems are the nerds always at risk of losing the country. I think Scherer is trying to play by those rules, even though that attitude flies in the face of reason, policy, experience, and polling data.
    -
    (And for whatever reason he just has a bug up his ass about Obama. Which is fine, better that than sycophancy, but he could at least report facts about issues rather than these faux-meta-pseudo-controversies.)

  • rustyreturns

    “Obama is a politician who sees the world strategically, who understands how all the pieces fit together”.
    .
    And, Joe is smokin’some of the good stuff for sure. Did you break down and buy a little wacky weed Joe?
    .
    Obama wouldn’t know how to get out of the way of a freight train unless it was written on a teleprompter!

  • 53_3

    Uh, Rusty. Ooooh, rusty!
    .
    Here boy! Kibbles and bits! Come ‘n get it! Here’s a bone!
    .
    Damn. The old saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks must be true!

  • 53_3

    Good job Joe. Like chocksa and PD, keep hitting on all eight!

  • 53_3

    When’s the cage match, Joe?
    .
    Do we get to watch? Can we tweet the event?
    .
    How much are the tickets and who gets the ringside seats? Can we have Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter in a no-holds-barred fact-free mudwrestle tether and belt match as the opening for the ticket?

  • 53_3

    Rusty!
    .
    Here’s a stick! Stick, fetch the stick!
    .
    See, fetch the stick! Stick, stupid, fetch the stick.
    .
    Damn, no wonder they’re extinct…

  • http://nicewhitelady.blogspot.com/ joyomama

    Give up, Newsweek. Pack in in, Politico. There’s NO bloggin’like SWAMP bloggin’. (channeling Ethel Merman)

  • lupercal5

    im positively certain joe klein is feeling quite queasy about all the fawning over his post. we all know the correctness of his point. suffice it to say that we agree and give reasons and rationales.
    .
    and i don’t see any reason to impugn motives to michael sherer for the post. If we discourage him to be completely honest and making an effort, he’ll still have those ideas. but we’ll never get a chance to refute them. he’ll just bring them with him to a press conference with the same fallacious argument. He’s said now a couple of times that he’s not arguing the contrary of joe’s point, which is the point many of us have already made. well, at the very least, he’ll know his ‘wording’was poor at best and if it came to ask obama or gibbs about that, he’d rephrase it. he might be making an effort to be contrarian to the DC conventional wisdom by giving republicans a fair look and bring their talking points into the conversation, but a good smackdown should suffice. his goal is honorable. it’s the argument taht’s faulty and needs be rectified.

  • stuartzechman
  • ilikechips

    Joe..you are nothing more than a fata$$ liberal partisan hack who can’t handle any criticism of your Obamessiah..nobody takes you seriously because you only write pro Obama articles and partisan attacks on the evil Republicans…I can’t believe Time still employs you..I think they have a job at my local pennysaver because that is all your qualified to do until you gain some objectivity and stop pandering to your messiah.

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