Watching the folks at The Corner discuss whether we should or should not be surprised that Barack Obama's administration has proved so ineffectual and inept is an interesting example of echo chambers in action. We've just closed out the first month of Obama's presidency. During that period, Obama passed S-CHIP expansion, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a $787 billion stimulus package that was many bills in one (including such liberal priorities as comparative effectiveness research, transit funding, Health IT funding, broadband funding, etc), and is about to turn his attention to comprehensive health care reform. To conservatives -- or at least to Victor Davis Hanson -- the first month has been more about skittish markets and failed nominees. And to many liberals, it's seemed like a lot of compromise with centrist Republicans and tapdancing around congressional Republicans and buckling to blue dogs. But actually, rather a lot has been accomplished. Behind the scenes, they've been constructing a health care reform proposal that will be unveiled in this week's budget, and action is happening on the energy legislation front, and they're still building out staff. Meanwhile, he's wildly popular and Republicans are increasingly marginalized from the public discourse. At this point, 56 percent of Americans say Obama should prioritize the policies he advocated in the campaign while only 39 percent say he should focus on working in a bipartisan way. Meanwhile, 79 percent of Americans think Republicans should prioritize working in a bipartisan way while only 17 percent think they should prioritize their policy agenda. However you slice it, that's a huge PR accomplishment for the majority party. So a lot's going on. If this is "stumbling," I'd like to see what a sprint looks like.
