From last week:
"I'd be surprised if a Congress still reeling from sticker shock in terms of the stimulus and the financial rescue are willing to pony up for a full-bore reform of the health system."That's a quote from William Galston of the Brookings Institution, formerly a Clinton aide. Another non-metaphoric quote from Galston earlier in the same paragraph:
"The president hasn't done as good a job of preparing the nation for the tradeoffs necessary to reconcile the hope agenda with the fear agenda."Unfortunately, I can well imagine senior White House strategists thinking in just those terms:
[Oval Office door flies open. David Axelrod bursts in.] "Nobody expects the Obama Administration! Our chief tool is hope … hope and fear … fear and hope … Our two tools are fear and hope, … and rhetorical obfuscation … Our three tools are fear, hope, rhetorical obfuscation … and mindless faith in the State… Our four … no … Amongst our tools… Amongst our methodologies … are such elements as fear, hope… I'll come in again."I hope that's not accurate, but I fear it is.
![[The Blogger and His Dog]](/ps/images/me_with_barney.jpg)
