My graduate school friend Nat Wilcox, who heard me remark on this theme at some point (and who, remarkably, remembers it now) pointed me to this post by someone I had not read before called Jay Cost, who is an ABD in political science at Chicago. The key paragraphs (at least in terms of this post):
I really like that line "playing the sitar and bitching about taxes".[Obama] pulled a similar trick during the stimulus debate, which makes me think that it's time the President get a new speechwriter, or at least an editor - especially for topics where public debate is intense. Having it both ways like this just seems intellectually lazy, and it makes for a weaker argument. Either treat your opponents with the good faith assumption, or don't. You can't do both, especially in the same paragraph! No number of baroque flourishes about keeping the faith during the Revolution can change that.
And those flights of fancy are sure getting old, aren't they? They were great and all on the night of the Iowa Caucus, but it's been years of the same tune again and again. The Beatles had a string of big hits from 1963-65 that all sounded the same - but by '66 George was playing the sitar and bitching about taxes. That was a change for the better, and a lesson for the President.
