Reply #10: I'm not saying that the economy, unemployment, and housing ... [View All]

[frazzled]

aren't in bad shape and that a lot of people have lost jobs. I have incredible empathy for that. The hyperbole to which I refer is the suggestion that it's all over if Obama doesn't do anything fast and that seventy-some percent of people won't even vote for him. As if the President alone can create jobs (especially with an obstructionist Congress that won't allow short-term spending), or as if even if he does come up with a decent program that this will alleviate all the problems immediately. It doesn't happen like that. Even with the New Deal, unemployment remained persistently high for nearly a decade. It didn't reach 15% (higher than now) until 1940. People still voted for Roosevelt. Four times. In the meantime, remember that Obama managed to get billions of dollars to the states over two years to keep public employees from being laid off, that he extended unemployment insurance massively, and that he has tried other stimulative measures that don't need Congress' approval (such as fast-tracking new infrastructure spending) whenever possible. Is it enough? No, but Matt Stoller's bleak picture of the political future is way over the top.