Chait observes of Grenell:
One reporter called him "the most deceptive press person I’ve ever dealt with," and Ari Fleischer called him "a consummate professional," which essentially confirms the charge.
And there you are.
In a separate post, Chait makes a keen but problematic (as I see it) observation about Obama's presidency:
Obama is running as a more liberal figure than he actually is. His reform agenda is a more ambitious version of the Clinton-era movement to overhaul the way government operates, but he has adopted none of the thematic centrism that Clinton used to such great effect. And by giving up on trying to explain these policies, he has made it harder to build a long-term coalition to sustain them. The boring stuff really, really matters.
That "boring stuff" regards the mechanics of healthcare and education reform, which, after explaining them himself, even Chait concedes: "You’re bored already, aren’t you? You probably skipped those last two paragraphs." Well, yes, the boring stuff does matter, but I have no problem with Obama's surrender on explaining it. Even most liberals don't care to follow the wonkish, inside-policy maneuvers required of these major reforms. We should recall, for instance, that FDR was eager to fold a national health insurance program into the Social Security Act, but as he lamented to his advisers: I wouldn't know how to explain it.
Explain it simply, that is. So he quit before he lost the debate. His other option was to jam it through, and then let the dust settle. And that, three-quarters of a century later, is what Obama was required to do.
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