The New Republic (TNR) Endorses the President

[DonViejo]

Why Obamaism Must Live
The case for reelection

IN THE WINTER OF 2009, the president was grasping for a phrase to sum up his agenda, a slogan that would capture his ambitions. He settled on the “New Foundation.” You didn’t need to be Ted Sorensen to understand that the phrase was straining too hard; and as the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told the president over dinner, it was a bit too evocative of a woman’s girdle. And yet, a new foundation is precisely what he has built.

Health care reform, if it is properly nurtured, largely completes the social safety net. Financial reform, if the lobbyists don’t shred it, will curb maniacal risk-taking in the markets. The stimulus provided the seed money to launch Race to the Top—perhaps the most significant wave of experimentation in the history of public education—and to remake the energy grid. It created industries from scratch: biofuel refineries and plants that manufacture batteries for electric cars.

Obamaism itself is perhaps this administration’s most important innovation. The president has used New Democratic means to achieve Old Democratic ends. In pursuit of old liberal dreams, he has relied heavily on the insights of markets: spurring competition, reforming bureaucracies, and leveraging small investments to achieve big goals. Two of his signal programs—health care’s individual mandate and cap and trade—were tellingly conceived by conservatives.

This approach helps explain, in part, why he has received insufficient political credit. It’s the stuff of technocracy, largely invisible to the public. But this invisibility is also President Obama’s fault. The president may have built a new foundation, but he hasn’t sufficiently made the case for it. Nor, crucially, has he crafted a sustained argument that might help erode the American aversion to government. (His convention speech barely mentioned health care reform, the essence of his legacy.) His oratorical and explanatory shortcomings have been maddening to watch, given the strengths he displayed in the 2008 campaign.

Continue reading:
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/108202/why-obamaism-must-live#

[budkin]

1. Doesn't mean much... it's way liberal n/t

[JNelson6563]

3. The New Republic??

lolz

[budkin]

7. It's not the National Review n/t

[FrenchieCat]

4. TNR is quite middle of the road leaning ever so slightly to the Left.....kinda.....

I would say that it is not a "liberal" publication.....
but then these days, anything left of Hatilla the Hun is seen by some
as Liberal.

[DonViejo]

5. The days when TNR could be called "liberal" have been

over for 20+ years--since the days when Andrew Sullivan was the editor.

[Drunken Irishman]

6. TNR is moderate liberalism at its best.

[ailsagirl]

2. Thanks for posting!

I love to read about Obama endorsements!