I could use a lot less armchair psychology from Ezra Klein. If you want to tell us what’s on the president’s mind, at least get someone from the administration to tell you (anonymously) that they’ve heard the president describe his thought process. Having said that, the contours of Klein’s article are probably fairly accurate. The president came to Washington to sign bills into law, not to engage in the same-old food fights. The president’s job is to work with the Congress he has, not the Congress he might wish to have. His job is to do whatever he can to improve the economy, not to waste time trying to convince John Boehner of the merits of Keynesian Economics. So, he probably didn’t want to go into full-on campaign mode. He wanted to improve people’s lives. Contra Klein, I don’t think the president had some epiphany and suddenly realized he’s been going about things all wrong. Rather, I think that the calendar advanced to past Labor Day a year out from election day. It is time to campaign.
Another point that Klein should make, but doesn’t, is that the president has a lot more credibility now when he takes his ideas to the public and says the the Republicans aren’t interested in compromise. You have to try and fail to get a compromise before that argument has any resonance. It’s not so much 11-Dimensional chess as basic common sense. Everyone’s poll numbers suffered during the summer, but no one’s standing was weakened more the Republicans’. That’s not an accident.
