A reader writes:
Calm down, entitlement reform will come. Obama plays a long game. Now is not the time to be telling folks they are going to have to work longer to get smaller benefits. Nor is it the time to tell them their pills are going to be taken away. What we need now is confidence, and the American people are willing to let him go nuts on spending to end the recession. After that fiscal sanity will return to the popular mood, and that’s when Obama will say "We did what we had to do to get out of the hole, and now it’s time to pay for it."
That just doesn’t happen. And another:
You are once again thinking in the short-term while Obama always takes the long view.
Here is what Obama has to do to keep the left: end or scale back the Iraq war, put a tourniquet on the bleeding economy, make some bold moves on energy and the environment, work on education, and radically overhaul the health care system. The Republicans are not going to like any of this one bit, so Obama will need his base in overdrive. The savings package in this budget is not necessarily meant to make conservatives feel better, it is meant to keep the moderate Dems on board.
Should this agenda be accomplished, Obama will be easily re-elected. The mood of the country will be less, well, scared shitless. The Democratic base will have been appeased and that is when I believe Obama swings for the legacy fences, and yes, that will include and overhaul of Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
Does this mean that you should give Obama a free pass in the interim? Absolutely not. But have no fear. If Obama blows his first term, the liberal agenda will be just as toxic then as Republicanism is now.
The Dish 