Obama: measurements that best define his success (or failure)?

[cthulu2016]

12. Absolutely. I agree.

It is unknown to what degree more effective measures were even considered, but assuming that the WH did not ask for things they knew wouldn't pass then to some degree a calculation was made that the downside of appearing weak was greater than the upside of being right and advancing the possibility of enhanced power/efficacy down the road.

This is why I lean toward believeing they honestly didn't get it. If they knew (as they should have known) that unemployment was going to go up a lot then it seems poltical malpractice to accept that inevitability quietly.

If you know it will happen and you are unable to prvent it then you would want to say, "Pass X or else Y." And then when Y happens at least you called it. And maybe then people rally to you. (Like they rallied to Churchill because he was famous for criticizing Chamberlain and warning abut the Nazis, despite not having had the power to implement what he thought.)

That's why I suspect they really didn't know. It all makes no political sense if they knew. And I KNOW that Obama is a good politician.

It is entirely possible that politicians, as a global class, were unable to understand what was obvious to others.