King Village Idiot:
Halperin's Take
This isn’t a prediction, but here is one highly plausible sequence of a series of events that could play out on the debt crisis:
Some time in the next 5 days, the President reaches an understanding with Speaker Boehner, Congressman Hoyer, and Senators Reid and McConnell for a deficit reduction/debt ceiling package that will be described as $4 trillion over a dozen years that will be heavily weighted towards spending cuts...
[snip]
And then it will fully dawn on Boehner and McConnell at the White House signing ceremony (likely as Obama is handing them their souvenir pens) that they were part of history, including part of the part where Obama was able to take off the table the single most damaging issue that could be used against him in 2012.
So not only a day after he made such an ignorant statement did Boehner rule out a 4 trillion deal, but he seriously believes the voters care more about the national debt than their jobs.
How could someone be so wrong and so clueless? Well if you know anything about Halperin you shouldn't be the least bit surprised. He is one of the most intellectually lazy, superficial assholes in the business. He merely parrots conventional wisdom so he can sound reasonable and serious - because coming up with analysis that is genuine and thought provoking would be too trying for his bird sized brain. Why does this man get paid so much for thinking and knowing so little?
Mathew Yglesias, however, is somewhat baffled by this idiocy:
This kind of thinking seems dangerously prevalent in Washington. Like voters are standing around here in the summer of 2011 saying to themselves, “well life is pretty good in America under Obama, but I’m really concerned about the long-range CBO projections so I might vote against him.” But that’s nuts. Obama’s vulnerable because conditions in the country right now aren’t very good. The unemployment rate is high, real wages are flat, lots of people have negative equity in their homes, lots of near-retired people have seen their savings vanish, etc.
Shhhh. Don't say that too loud Matt. You might disturb the fantasy the Village lives in.