President Obama wrote a strong Op-Ed in the Washington Post pitching his stimulus plan. He's starting to hone his message, which is great. Surprisingly, I didn't get any kind of news alert from the Post about their P.R. coup in netting the president, who's not a shabby writer. But I did just get one from the paper's P.R. department about a writer it seems they're prouder to have: Bill Kristol!
From communications manager Jennifer Lee: "Just posted on washingtonpost.com's Post Partisan's Blog, William Kristol responds to President Obama's op-ed in The Washington Post." Kristol quotes Obama on the long-term goals of the stimulus -- "a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education" -- and says the answer for Republicans is to support only short-term spending and tax cuts. "They should insist that all the 'energy, health care and education' proposals be debated in an orderly and serious way in the regular legislative process -- not jammed through as part of an emergency 'stimulus.'"
Kristol goes on to suggest Republicans strip the short-term things they like from the Democrats' bill -- mainly tax cuts, extending unemployment insurance and "housing measure" (no doubt strategies to reinflate the bubble, the Republicans' latest voodoo economics plan) -- and name it “The Emergency Economic Growth Bill of 2009.” When Obama won't sign it, they blame him for failing to address the economic crisis. I love post-partisanship, don't you? I bet Obama is glad he made time for dinner with Kristol -- imagine if he hadn't?
Wednesday we had Joe the Plumber's debut as a Republican strategist. Thursday we have Kristol, rescued from the Times trash heap by the Washington Post. Is this a great country, or what?
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