It Doesn't Take Much to Distract Craig Crawford

Craig Crawford was a bit under the weather this morning, and not under the influence of drugs, as Imus suggested. “I’m huddled up next to my gas log fire trying to warm up,” he said, then provided way too much information about vent-less fireplaces and carbon monoxide detectors.
 
Unlike some of his liberal cronies, Crawford, a blogger for Congressional Quarterly’s Roll Call, isn’t hating on President Obama for compromising with Republicans on extending tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year.
 
“I think he’s right,” Crawford said. “Pragmatic incrementalism is about all Liberals can get in this country.”
 
But while running for President in 2008, Obama convinced voters he was far more liberal than he has been so far, and that he would bring about greater change. “I actually never thought he was that liberal in the campaign,” Crawford said. “I didn’t understand why Liberals thought he was so liberal.”
 
Rather than pin the blame on Obama for lying, as Imus tried to get him to do, Crawford faulted Liberals for lying to themselves. “I don’t think they were actually listening to what he was saying in the campaign,” he said, and pointed out that Obama’s health care proposal was the most conservative of those offered by himself, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards during the Democratic primary. “There was plenty signs for Liberals to see that he was going to be more of a centrist than they ever thought he was.”
 
Obama is “a compromiser,” as Crawford put it, only he hasn’t yet learned how to bend Congress to his will. “But, a lot of presidents don’t learn that,” he said.
 
Though Obama announced Monday that he reached a deal with Republicans, it remains unclear whether the Democrats, in fact, have enough votes to pass the compromised version of the bill. Such uncertainty has been a hallmark of this White House, Crawford observerd.
 
“They feel the Democrats will not take the step to raise taxes on the middle class, and so that’s the leverage they’ve got over them,” he said. “On the other hand, that’s leverage they could have had over Republicans.”
 
Democrats, he believes, would have been better served putting Republicans in the position of raising taxes on the middle class if they voted for continued cuts for the wealthy. “Obama didn’t want to, for some reason, make that argument,” Crawford said.
 
Imus then asked his guest a question about double dip recession, which was followed by a few awkward seconds of silence during which Imus supposed Crawford had suffered a stroke. Fortunately, he had merely been deep in thought.
 
“What if both Obama and Biden actually resign, then Nancy Pelosi could be President for the next couple of years,” he said. “That’s the ultimate Tea Party nightmare!”
 
True. But, also, horribly irrelevant at the moment.
 
-Julie Kanfer