We needed Superman, and got Clark Kent

Drew Westen (the psychologist who wrote “The Political Brain”, one of the best books I’ve read) writes in the NYT that Obama blew his chance. He played the mild-mannered wimp, when he should’ve confronted the crooks in the alley and smacked them unconscious:

…But the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise.

It does not bend when 400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans. It does not bend when the average middle-class family has seen its income stagnate over the last 30 years while the richest 1 percent has seen its income rise astronomically.

It does not bend when we cut the fixed incomes of our parents and grandparents so hedge fund managers can keep their 15 percent tax rates. It does not bend when only one side in negotiations between workers and their bosses is allowed representation.

And it does not bend when, as political scientists have shown, it is not public opinion but the opinions of the wealthy that predict the votes of the Senate. The arc of history can bend only so far before it breaks.

The irony is that his capitulation to the Tea Party’s “No New Taxes Ever” incantation is a big reason S&P cut the government’s bond rating.

His defenders hint at a long-range master plan to let the consequences of the spending cuts convince people the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to lapse (which would reverse the debt crisis almost overnight) … we’ll see.