Ezra Klein Is An Idiot

Ezra Klein is widely regarded as the font of all wisdom and knowledge, writing in the Washington Post and appearing regularly on Countdown and occasionally on Hardball.

He wrote a piece in Friday’s Post claiming that Obama has thoroughly emasculated all of the special interest groups that once dominated Washington. I won’t bother to refute that piece of utter and absolute nonsense, since Glenn Greenwald does a masterful job of that in his post today on the subject. Suffice it to say that special interest groups are alive and well in Washington.

Young Mr. Klein was on Countdown last night to promote a similar view, claiming that Obama’s stand on “health care reform” (see, still in quotes) has dramatically changed the entire Democratic Party. His appearance is not included in the clips posted on MSNBC’s site, and the transcript won’t be up until Monday, so I’ll have to paraphrase, but one quote which I recall clearly is that, “Obama has chosen polarization over triangulation.”

The gist of his argument is that Democrats have a reputation for caving in and compromising, and that in taking his stance on “health care reform” Obama has overcome that reputation; he took a stand and never backed down or compromised, and he has won. (Assuming that the bill passes.)

That’s just idiotic. The whole thing started with a compromise when Obama agreed that single payer would not even be included for consideration, that considering such a plan would be “too disruptive.”

The compromise continued when Obama negotiated in secret with Pharma and the hospital industries before the bill planning even began that drug reimportation, bulk price negotiation and other public cost savings would not be on the table for consideration in return for their cooperation.

The very definition of “triangulation” is Obama saying that he would “favor the public option, but…” while the House passes the public option, more than 51 Senators sign a letter agreeing that they will vote for a public option, and then compromising on a bill that does not contain the public option which 83% of the public wants.

How can you not call it a compromise of principle when Congress adopts methods of passing a bill that it condemned when the Republicans did it, and then use as justification of their actions that “the Republicans did it”?

Klein is one of the few public figures who thinks that “polarization” is a good thing. It was roundly condemned when George W. Bush did it, but now that Obama is supposedly doing it, which is a ridiculous claim, polarization suddenly becomes a virtue.