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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Digby Hammers Obama for Praising Reagan.

The post is brilliant (especially the part about can you imagine Reagan saying "...").

However, it includes one really dumb line which I want to jump on --"adopting hot button conservative issues like social security."

No Digby. Non conservatives can not agree that "social security" is a conservative hot button. Social Security is the third rail, the holly grail. We absolutely can't let it be their issue. Also, of course, it isn't. I mean it is the rail on which they electrocuted themselves remember ?

Now Obama has a proposal to strengthen social security that would actually strengthen it rather than dismantle it piece by piece. This is a very powerful political weapon.

Arguing that he is over-emphasizing the seriousness of the problem of the actuarial soundness of the SSA pension and disability trust fund (0.1 on a scale from 1 to 10 of problems the USA faces) is missing the point. This is a campaign. This is politics. You promise to give people what they want, in this case a pension. The fact that it will be easy is an advantage not a problem.

The main point of the post, you don't seize the day by playing safe, is absolutely correct and very important.

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