Ezra Klein Dismisses Ron Fournier’s Comparison of Obama to Bush’s Second Term
On Tuesday, National Journal Editorial Director Ron Fournier published a column examining the similarities between the first year of President Barack Obama’s second term and that of former President George W. Bush. He observed that the parallels are eerie and Obama runs the risk of leaving office with a dubious record of achievements. On Tuesday, Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein dismissed Fournier’s analysis as overly focused on intra-Washington politics and lacking the perspective that the average American applies to presidencies.
MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts opened the segment by reporting that a new ABC News/Washington Post poll has found Obama with a lower job approval rating after the first year of his second term than Bush or even former President Richard Nixon.
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Roberts said that this finding “opens up the conversation for comparisons of a parallel universe.” He asked Klein for his impression of Fournier’s recent column highlighting Bush/Obama parallels.
“I find Ron’s analysis tends to put politics and what politicians say at an over essential role in the way the American people evaluate them,” Klein replied. He said that the American people have a bad impression of the president today, not as a result of anything rhetorical, but because of the concrete failure of the roll out of the Affordable Care Act.
“President Obama will rebound if his actual central legislative achievement and the program he’s setting up now becomes a success for the American people,” Klein added. “He will not if it doesn’t.
“There’s no amount of spin that will make a bad bill a good one and no amount of spin that will make a good bill a bad one in the eyes of voters,” he conclude.
Watch the clip below, via MSNBC:
[Photo via screen grab ]
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