In his column today, Michael Barone observes that, after a bit of policy stuff, the Obama regime is back to political manipulation in an effort to save Democrat seats in the fall.
This is much like FDR, whom Obama thinks was the very model of a modern redistributionist president. In 1934, as historian Burt Folsom points out in his recent book New Deal of Raw Deal, FDR and his “brain trust” put enormous work (and taxpayer money!) into the objective of electing more Democrats to Congress. The economy was not recovering under the anti-market New Deal policies hastily enacted in 1933 and early ’34. To take people’s minds off that fact, FDR orchestrated a brilliant campaign meant to energize special interest groups.
Hoodwink enough voters to win the next election. That’s Job One in Washington.