American Prospect: Five things Obama could have done differently

David Dayen, writing in The American Prospect, has a nice look-back at what Obama did, and what he could have done differently to bring us to a different place.

(Note that this assumes the frame that Obama wants to bring us to a different place. Not that I disagree, but I want to make the frame explicit and not covert: i.e., a given.)

Dayen:

The debt-ceiling fight did not have to go down like this. Along the way, any number of political actors, from the president to congressional Democrats, had the ability to defuse the bomb with which Republicans held the nation’s creditworthiness hostage. Here are five missed chances to change the dynamic.

I'll list the five chances; the article makes interesting reading on all counts:

■ Obama and Democrats could have fixed the economy.
■ They could have included the debt limit in the 2010 tax deal.
■ They could have refused to agree with the premise [that America has a massive debt crisis that will burden our children and crush us].
■ They could have made credible threats.
■ They could have involved the public earlier.

As Dayen says, none of these would have guaranteed a different outcome, but you never know until you try. His point, and I agree, is that Obama didn't try, at least in these ways.

Do click through; it's a nice piece of analysis.

GP