On the Contrary

First, if you read my blog on “A New Stimulus Package and Conservative Obstructionism“, apparently Paul Krugman, who may I add has a shade more credibility than I do on the subject, wrote essentially the same thing about the need for a new stimulus package.  See Too Little of a Good Thing.

Second, the other important editorial was Tom Friedman who hit on a theme I have poorly described as the “Vision Thing”.  In his editorial, More Poetry, Please, he pointed out that most people are confused about what President Obama really believes.  They see his policies as this and that, as opposed to a cohesive whole toward an end goal.  He calls it the narrative thing and I think he has hit on the critical issue of our times.  Instead of seeing health care reform as a social program, or cap and trade as a tax on all of us, President Obama needs to weave this into a narrative about how these programs are part of the whole fabric of our future, not just separate programs.  Best said from his Op-ed:

“But to deliver on that promise, Sandel added, Obama needs to carry the civic idealism of his campaign into his presidency. He needs a narrative that will get the same voters who elected him to push through his ambitious agenda — against all the forces of inertia and private greed.

‘You can’t get nation-building without shared sacrifice,” said Sandel, “and you cannot inspire shared sacrifice without a narrative that appeals to the common good — a narrative that challenges us to be citizens engaged in a common endeavor, not just consumers seeking the best deal for ourselves. Obama needs to energize the prose of his presidency by recapturing the poetry of his campaign.’”

Talk about getting to the essence of the issue.