Matt Bai Misses the Boat

with his depiction of this president as a "progressive" and not a "populist." Obama, in fact, is neither. He is not Roosevelt, either one of them, and in fact is more in line with his "hero" Ronald Reagan when it comes to policies. He's clearly to the right of Carter and Clinton, two of the more "conservative" Democrats we have had in recent decades.

The truth is Obama is a neoliberal, or Friedmanite, and all of his policies point in that direction, most egregiously in the field of education.

Friedmanite ideas and policies have been discredited and debunked, but our politicians, including Obama, continue to peddle this garbage because that is what their financial backers still believe.

They believe it because Friedmanism benefits THEM, while everybody else is screwed over.

Campaign Notes

Joe Biden spoke to a crowd of around 4,000 in Henderson, Nevada, a far cry from early 2007, when he was lucky if he could PAY people to hear him speak.

I hope he makes a trip up north before the election. As readers know, I have met him twice.
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The ONLY reason Obama is "connecting" AT ALL with working-class voters is because the economy is in the shitter at this moment. I don't need to write a 10,000-word article to explain the obvious.

Obama wouldn't have a prayer in states like Nevada, and I still don't think he will pull off a victory here. The rurals will STILL go Republican, always have, always will. He wouldn't have a prayer at all in most states if it weren't for the Wall Street/mortgage/banking mess.
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If Matt Bai Is to Be Believed,

the Democratic primaries are really a referendum on the Clinton years.

Whatever.

Joan Walsh is a Ditz,

so I wouldn't put too much credence in her notion Democrats are about to sweep all next year.

It appears we Democrats are about to fuck it up again and pick the wrong person as the standardbearer for the party because too many people in the party establishment think she has "earned" it like some gold watch for retirement. The voters have absolutely no say in this.

It's awful because we could win this with the right candidate. I submit it is Edwards, but if his campaign keeps up with moving staff around he's going to be written off.

And if he's written off, it's all over.

Bai is probably more correct than Walsh, but that's damning him with faint praise.