By Simon Johnson

Increasingly, senior administration officials shrug when you mention the November mid-term elections.  “We did all we could,” and “it’s not our fault” is the line; their point being that if jobs (miraculously at this point) come back quickly, the Democrats have a fighting chance – but not otherwise.

It may be true, at this point, that there is little fiscal policy can do that would have effects fast enough; and monetary policy is out of the administration’s hands.

But ever so quietly, you get the impression the Obama team itself is not so very unhappy – they know the jobs will come back by 2012, they feel that Republican control of the House will just energize the Democratic base, and no one will be able to blame the White House for getting nothing done from 2010 on.

When you push them on this issue, they snap back, “Well, what do you want us to do?  What’s the policy proposal that we are not pursuing?”  But this is exactly the wrong way to think about the issue.

Continue reading “Does The Obama Administration Even Want To Win In November?” →