Sure, Joe Klein‘s latest TIME column features his standard gratuitous Republican-bashing and his laughable assertion that President Obama is a “very moderate Democrat.”
Still, Klein dares to mention the key questions posed by “nonstop extreme and occasionally foolish” Republican presidential candidates as we approach the Iowa caucuses:
When you strip away the silliness, though, the Republicans have waged their campaign around the most important questions facing the country right now: How much government is enough? Should we reform the welfare state? Can we update the clunky apparatus that was built for an industrial, assembly-line era and make it appropriate to our circumstances? How do we support our citizens in a volatile, global economy while encouraging them to take risks and innovate? These are questions that are worthy of a serious presidential campaign, and this memorably goofy crop of Republicans should, against all logic, be congratulated for raising them.
If only we could convince more left-of-center observers to ask how much big government is enough big government. It’s a conversation worth having.
