Wait A Second....

Sullivan almost suckers me into thinking we're all giving Obama too hard a time.

Preventing a second Great Depression, which was a real possibility (and not just the jobless recovery we're in, but a full-scale collapse), rescuing the banks without nationalizing them, saving the auto-companies with precision and technocratic skill (I didn't think it would work at all, and it did), re-setting relations with the rest of the world, bringing a new sanity and balance to Middle East policy, taking out 400 al Qaeda operatives, using the myth of the surge to get the hell out of Iraq (for the most part), upping the ante to get a deal with the Taliban and enacting a centrist, moderate law that for the first time in history ensures that anyone can get health insurance in this country ... really, in perspective, pretty damn remarkable.

Hold up, hold up, hold up. Why does Obama get credit for preventing a second Great Depression? First, I still find the claim we were several days from total financial collapse a bit dubious. It is impossible to know this, of course. And yes, I suppose we ought to listen to the experts (nevermind they are the ones who got us there), and the top people seemed to all think this whole thing was pretty goddamn serious and close to major disaster. But let's be honest here - it was Bush's people who reacted to the crisis first and it was their plan that saved "total initial meltdown" with the TAARP bail out.

What Obama added was the Stimulus, Cash for Clunkers, extended welfare benefits, and the Auto Bail Out. Is Sullivan seriously claiming that without the Stimulus we would have sunk into a second Great Depression? I find this claim to be ludicrous. I know about 2 people who got stimulus help. I assume a few others got extended welfare benefits. I know about 250 people - meaning everyone I know - who are going to paying for that Stimulus in the years to come.