FT liberal columnist Clive Crook argues that Barack Obama's strange pro tax deal"is a formula for mental illness." Crook writes:

In the extraordinary press conference that followed his announcement, he began with an apology to Democrats. This was a bad deal, he admitted, a terrible deal. Failing to raise taxes on households making more than $250,000 a year – “millionaires and billionaires”, as he puts it – was very wrong. But Republicans had taken the country hostage. He hated to deal with such people and promised it would not happen again, but this time he either paid the ransom or everybody’s taxes would go up. What else could he do?

Since these hostage-taking Republicans had just won a sweeping election victory, calling them public enemies was brave. But the president had not finished. After attacking his own deal and expressing contempt for the other side, he switched to telling Democrats to embrace bipartisanship. Beat that. In politics, he said, there has to be give and take: not everybody agrees with the editorial page of The New York Times (quite a concession). Remember, he said, the US “was founded on compromise”. Without it, the union would not have survived.

Could somebody in the White House please tell Mr Obama he cannot have it both ways? Either a) Republicans are evil, dealing with them is repugnant and you do it only with a gun to your head; or b) they are fellow Americans, with legitimate views (backed for the moment by most of the electorate) and working with them (however hard they make it) is a presidential obligation. Either of these positions is coherent. Trying to maintain both is a formula for mental illness.

Personally, I am less concerned with Barack Obama's mental health than I am with a president who considers the majority of the citizenry to be enemies and hostage takers. No, I do not consider him brave merely dangerous. He treats Americas enemy with greater respect than America's citizens. I find MSM and Republican relative silence on this issue most disheartening. No, I do not support the tax deal either.

Krugman is right in asserting that the deal does nothing to strengthen the American economy. It merely makes us further indebted to the Chinese and the oil producers (typically, the NYT editors argue that the US can afford it)

But, then, making American weaker and poorer has been Barack Obama's wish from the moment he assumed the presidency and the Ethanol and wind subsidies combined with the SEVEN YEAR ban on off shore drilling prove that the shellacking by the American people have failed to block his ability to inflict further harm on the country. Why? Because Republicans caved in.

So, Obama is not mentally ill. Those who are fooled/appeased by his rhetoric may be.

Update: Need more proof? Obama vows to fight Republicans -- next year

Economics, Class Warfare and the Washington Blame Game

The President of the United States has called his political opposition hostage-takers for a philosophical difference in tax policy, and accused them of highly nefarious motivations. One wishes he could find the same level of outrage for true evil. The Iranian government unleashes state police on peaceful protesters, shooting them like dogs in the street, and the best Obama can muster is disappointment. North Korea sinks a South Korean vessel, and later shells a South Korean town, resulting in dozens dead or wounded, and all Obama feels is deep concern, maybe an occasional flash of outrage, although a calculated, academic outrage. Third World thugs insult our country from the floor of the United Nations and he smirks and fails to defend us.

No wonder Obama and the Democrats have lost the trust of the American people. They see their real enemies as being Republicans, conservatives, free market supporters, the TEA Party and the internal combustion engine. Meanwhile, they call for understanding and sympathy for terrorists, dictators and murderers. They had better recalibrate their moral standing or else 2012 will be a continuation of 2010. Class warfare does not stimulate economic growth, and right now the people are emphatically declaring “It’s the economy, stupid!”.