Here, in its entirety, is a recent commentary by Republican David Frum on the NPR show "Marketplace":
I know, I know, I know! There's Christine O'Donnell, Rand Paul and Sharron Angle. Never mind Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Fox News. There's the crazy guy in Texas who says that revolution is "on the table." And anyway, what kind of fiscally conservative party campaigns on a pledge to protect Medicare exactly as it is?
Yet I will, nevertheless, be voting the straight Republican ticket on Nov. 2, and here's why: The Obama Administration has launched more big bold initiatives than any administration since Lyndon Johnson's, from health care reform through Afghanistan.
Now ask yourself this: Which of these measures has produced the results promised? Of them all, in fact, there's only one that has done the job -- and that was a continuation of a Bush-era policy, the Troubled Asset Relief Program. TARP averted a second Great Depression. But the Obama stimulus did not ignite job creation. Health care reform will increase the number of insured Americans somewhat, at enormous cost, but it will not slow cost inflation. It will mean higher subsidies and more taxes. The auto bailout is just plain bad economic policy. More disappointments.
The financial regulation fix ignored as "too hard" -- the status of the government mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "Green jobs" is an excuse for government boondoggles. Meanwhile, the crucial goal of energy security is no closer today than two years ago.
We need a change of course. And ironically, the biggest winner from such a change might be the president himself. Again and again, this president has excessively deferred to Democrats in Congress. He let them write his stimulus and his health care bill.
Obama won't defer to Republicans, which means a big Republican win will not only redirect the country, it will also remind this president that it's his job to lead, not just preside.
The opening is probably intended as a come-on to the latte-sipping, NPR-listening, Democrat-voting demographic that tunes into "Marketplace." Look! See! I am not a nut! What's more notable, I think, is that Frum's only mention of Republicans, in a piece purporting to explain why he'll vote a straight-Republican ticket, concerns how embarrassing they are. The case for them is the case against Obama, but the case against Obama is sort of sketchy. Averting a second Great Depression will strike some as a considerable achievement. Frum credits the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which the current crop of insurgent Republicans would have opposed. If Frum lived in Minnesota's sixth congressional district, would he be voting a straight-Republican ticket? That would mean casting a ballot for Michele Bachmann, who voted against TARP, and is proud of it.
The problem comes into focus, I believe, when you begin to consider such phrases as "Obama's stimulus." It shouldn't really be called "Obama's stimulus," because Obama wanted something bigger. But the Republicans, united in their opposition, whittled it down. Similarly with health care reform, which did not include the public option the White House wanted.
Democracy, American-style, has the weakness that the "party in power" cannot really enact its agenda and then be judged by the results. People like Frum are saying that Obama has failed, he hasn't done enough--but it's the people Frum will vote for who have thwarted him. Now Republicans will take over the House, and possibly the Senate, but to what end? Frum speaks vaguely of a "change of course" but there are no details. We know what Republicans are against--anything that Obama is for--but where do they want to take the country? Frum isn't saying, and neither are the Republican candidates he will vote for, unless you count "cut taxes" and "reduce the deficit"--we've heard it before, tried it, given it a fairer trial than Frum will give Obama, and it hasn't worked. The only thing new is the crazy background noise provided by the likes of Sharron Angle.
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