The Fringe Benefits

A Democrat is president and that means the fringe elements of the hard right wing are busy at establishing a foothold in the American body politic.

The debate around health care reform has certainly highlighted what's in store for the next several years. If it's not the rampant use of the Hitler comparisons it's the unitelligible dribble permeating the mob scenes at town hall meetings that defines this latest resurgence of reactionary mouth breathers.

This persistence of lunatic fringe in public discourse will have consequences. As the SLPC has reported, we've seen this kind of social movement before and it's back in vogue,

Almost a decade after largely disappearing from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven tax defiers and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers around the country. “Paper terrorism” — the use of property liens and citizens’ “courts” to harass enemies — is on the rise. And once-popular militia conspiracy theories are making the rounds again, this time accompanied by nativist theories about secret Mexican plans to “reconquer” the American Southwest.

Surely not all of the screamers at health care forums are of the militant ilk. Some of them are just uninformed or unwilling to listen to the facts of the matter. You'll have that anywhere. The problem is that the influence of the re-surging militia or Bircher movement will bleed into the everyday right wing cadre of citizenry. What was once very fringe will become more prevalent.

I'm afraid that all of the very important debates to be had in the next few years, like health care or climate change, are going to transpire in the midst of these proto-brownshirts that have descended on the public square like a modern day lynch mob. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the election of a black man as president.

Shedding The Taint of TARP

An interesting dichotomy is emerging in the banking industry as of late. Large money center banks are bowing out of the Treasury capital assistance program affectionately know as TARP. At the same time smaller regional banks are more than willing to hold on to the capital and are not concerned about blemishing their reputations.

Big banks are doing their best to jettison TARP dollars and repurchase the associated warrants the government took as a condition of assistance. Large banks are making it crystal clear they don't need the money and are giving a mission accomplished reason for the change in disposition.

Ditching TARP is being used to convey a sense of strength and independence to investors and customers alike. Big banks are making every case they can to wiggle out of the grand bargain offered to them in the darkest hours of the financial crisis of 2008. For example, the form letter below is being sent out by U.S Bank to it's commercial customers to extol the virtues of being TARP free.

US Bank TARP Memo - Get more Business Documents

Meanwhile in the realm of smaller more humble banks the landscape is much different. A article appearing in the WSJ and cited all over the internet reveals that smaller regional banks have been more than happy to hold on to their TARP allocations. Apparently the smaller more sensible banks have decided to meet one of the objectives of the program - provide credit for business investment.

The behemoths on the other hand are more concerned about demonstrating they can maintain adequate capital levels without help from Treasury. Extending credit to small businesses is ancillary at best. The other perk of course is the ability to dodge executive pay caps and somehow prevent the inevitable regulatory smack down that is on the horizon.

Convention Busting Bumpers

I've had a chance to catch some of the media coverage of Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame. The piece in the NYT was decent. It did seem to reference the common use of graphic imagery on the part of the anti-abortion protesters. The rampant hyperbole used to describe the president's supposed hatred for the unborn was a close second.

Opposition to abortion on religious grounds is not hard to understand. What I have always been troubled with is the primacy placed on this one issue above all other moral questions. Wars built on lies and unbridled greed don't rile the lifers as much these days.

Making the daily drive up to Cleveland today I noticed a car with two bumper stickers. The sticker on the left side read, "Former Fetus Opposed to Abortion". Prominently displayed on the upper right bumper was an Obama 08 sticker.

There it was, a glaring contradiction to the conventional wisdom purveyed by the insurrectionists at Notre Dame. Pro-life is more than a stance on abortion. Supporting a Democrat for president and opposing abortion do not have to be mutually exclusive beliefs. Obama didn't manage to win an election and not grab a portion of the devout Christian vote.

Now, I don't wear my bumper stickers on my sleeve but that driver was a voter I can respect.

Bridge Fencing And Berea Sandstone

The first round of federal stimulus dollars for local infrastructure projects have been announced and the complaints about government waste are already materializing. One of those projects, The Akron Y Bridge rehabilitation, includes installation of safety fencing along the bridge. The decision to fence the bridge has been batted around since several citizens have decided to jump to their deaths from the span. The cost has always been prohibitive until now.

Needed as it may be may be there is an undertone of criticism swirling around the inclusion of the fencing within the bridge project. Tim over at the Chief Source has some misgivings about the waste aspect of spending money on the fence. I Think he's mad about the diminution of the view. Grumpy Abe points out that the ABJ headline on the project implies there is a groundswell of dissatisfaction over the fence even though none really exists. To not be outdone I found a story on Topix from the International Herald Tribune that refers to federal stimulus dollars being spent on "anti-suicide fencing" to keep people from jumping to their deaths.

I can already see where these complaints are going. The Tea Party crowd will get a hold of these project names and individual components and turn them into anti-government invectives. All of this misses the point of the federal program. The dollars are being dedicated to local projects and those projects are being designed and planned by local governments. The overarching goals being to invest in infrastructure and employ people. This isn't a contest to see who can create the most spartan bridge deck.

The current federal funding program for roads and bridges is very similar to the Depression era programs of the 1930's that also had this dual purpose. The evidence of those historical initiatives can be seen all over the Cuyahoga Valley in the form of sandstone blocks that ring the parking lots and mark the park roads. All of these blocks were harvested from the local quarries as part of a program to improve the amenities of the park and keep your grandfather employed. Consider this passage describing a popular location in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park that benefited from the Depression era jobs program:

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) accomplished much of the early work of transforming the private retreat into a public park. Structures in the park built by the CCC in the 1930s include Kendall Lake itself, completed in 1935 and built primarily for swimming, toboggan chutes in 1936 (later removed by the National Park Service), the Lake Shelter in 1937, originally used as a swimmers bathhouse and concession, and the unique chestnut wood privies.

That description was from the Trail Guide Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 3rd Edition. A critic of Roosevelt CCC's work could have been inclined to doubt the need for fancy wood outhouses and a swimming lake. Sure, the country was facing economic collapse and the government was paying men to build recreational digs out out of expensive materials.

The point back then was the same as it is with today's stimulus program spending. The country is facing a great economic decline, one that is chiefly demand driven. The point of infrastructure spending in 2009 is to employee people, drive up demand and get the national economy back on its feet. Not much different than in the 1930's.

Bridge fencing as part of an overall project to rehab an elevated roadway is not a far cry from those sandstone blocks that ring the parking lots or adorn the shelters in the CVNP. Why quarry large chunks of sandstone only to bury them halfway in the ground near park roadways? Why install unsightly fencing along the entire length of Akron's most notable bridge? The answer for both questions is the same. These projects were sanctioned to employ Ohioans and improve our infrastructure in the process. Whether it be park roads or city thoroughfares.

Some critics will be hanging on the the name and intent of every infrastructure project that gets tapped for stimulus funding. In the case of the Y Bridge the image of government waste will be intimated because the $1.5 million spent on the fencing will be puffed up to hyperbolic levels by every libertarian or anti-taxer in throwing distance.

I'd argue that the view was not the driving force (get it) behind the funding of the Y Bridge project. The City of Akron had a duel need of investing in infrastructure and uplifting the economic well being of the region. Directing the federal dollars towards a comprehensive design for revamping the bridge happens to include the maligned "suicide fencing" among other improvements.

You can argue that the views from the Y Bridge will be diminished once the fences go up, but don't tell me that it's a waste of money. Losing the unobstructed view from the bridge is a small price for building a safe and structurally sound piece of Akron's infrastructure. If you want to take in a vista of the surrounding terrain I would suggest the outlook trail at Kendall Ledges. While you're in the area stop by Kendall Lake and check out the Berea sandstone road markers and the stone lodge that sits alongside that lake.

Summit Stimulus, Color and Shape

As the requests for stimulus dollars stack up the State of Ohio is already announcing some of the first project awards. More on that Akron Y Bridge Fencing later.

I wanted to take a basic high level look at the requests originating from the localities in Summit County. I think the color and shape of what locals are asking for points to the dire need for infrastructure revitalization. So I grabbed the latest download from the State and set off to flesh out some of the major trends.

The data is available as an excel file, still no true mash-up from the State or any other entity.

Presently there are $1.33 billion in requests from local governments in Summit County. This number does not include the Akron Public Schools, the University of Akron or non profits. The real meat and potatoes so far has been infrastructure projects. As can be seen from this handy pie chart I conjured from the Recovery.Ohio data.

A full two thirds of the requests are for good old fashioned roads, bridges, water, sewer and other main line infrastructure. What does this mean? Probably that there is great need to rebuild the decaying mess that we have depended on to support civilized society. If the Romans had functioning sewers shouldn't we?

I also wanted to see what some specific locals have requested. The next table is a brief look at some select areas of Summit County have asked for in federal stimulus dollars.

Local Government	$'s Requested	$'s Per Capita
Summit County	1,333,056,220	2,453
Akron	679,664,346	3,089
Cuyahoga Falls	139,257,132	2,785
Green	51,100,031	2,222
Stow	11,960,312	374

The requests for Summit County include the County government and all other local governments. Akron takes up more than half of all requests in the county. Akron's requests include some behemoths like the central interchange improvement project that could top $50 million. Adding the APS requests to Akron would push that per capita number up.

The per capita numbers were based on the 2007 Census Bureau population estimates. I'd say political leanings do not make a discernible difference when it comes to requesting ARRA dollars. If your name is Don you'll take the money.

If I have the time I'll try to do some more slicing and dicing of the actual approved dollars as they roll in.

Presser Night In America

President Obama just started fielding questions at his second prime time press conference. The media throng doesn't look too impressed this time. All of the outrage has taken it's toll I guess.

Chuck Todd just got his second chance to ask question in front of 50 million Americans and blew it! He wanted to know what average American's have been asked to sacrifice during the recession. Hey Chuck are you nuts?

We've been taking a back seat for almost a decade now. In fact, I know of a few thousand UAW members that are taking it on the chin over that auto maker bailout. Does he really think they owe as much penance as the knuckleheads that caused Depression 2.0? Geesh.

As bad as things look right now it's reassuring to see Obama get in front of the nation and at least try to make a case for his agenda. What an improvement from the last guy.

Oh, Chip Reid wants to know if spending on things like education, health care and the environment will ultimately be irresponsible. And by "environment" I think Chipster is talking about alternative energy programs, such a sweet child. Don't get discouraged Mr. President it's bound to get better.

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AIG, Break It Don't Buy It

The feeding frenzy over the AIG "retention payments" is making the Obama administration look like chum in the water. The real danger for Obama and his financial team is that they are going to be saddled with ownership of the whole ugly event if they don't change the discourse.

No amount of outrage peddling will be able to reverse the explosiveness the AIG mess is having on Obama's long-term outlook. A point will shortly be reached in which the major components of the agenda will be at risk. Obama's detractors in the GOP have no choice but to harness the populist backlash and attempt to pull the president's agenda down in the process, as Bloomberg News posits :

The public furor over the $165 million in bonuses AIG handed out to employees gives administration critics a new weapon to thwart Obama’s agenda, from his budget to plans for financial-market regulation.

Robert Reich admits the viability of Obama's agenda is tied to outcome of the intervention in the financial markets:

The President cannot afford to lose the public’s confidence that his administration is a careful steward of the public’s money. The public was willing to go along with a large stimulus package. But it won’t go along with a second stimulus, and certainly not another TARP. And until the public feels confident that its money isn’t being thrown down a rat hole, it may balk at other ambitious undertakings such as health care or education or the environment.

There's basically no time to continue engaging in the populist Olympics currently being held in Congress and in the press. The administration and Geithner in particular need to decouple from the past AIG strategy. The president has to be more forceful in reminding us how we got to to where we are, namely the decision by he former administration to bailout Wall Street. And if that is not enough it wouldn't hurt to start talking in public about revamping the regulatory regime very soon. The real enemy here isn't bonus payments its the decades long free market rampage that has left the country in a bind.

One more option needs to be thrown out there. The fact that AIG is still in one piece is puzzling to me. We already own most of the company. Why not start looking into surpassing the 80% threshold and just nationalize AIG for real? Does any sane person (free market fanatics excluded) care what happen to AIG at this point?

Pushing for the real nationalization of AIG would force the break up option, one that should have been exercised months ago. Robert Reich thinks that a break up would have saved us a lot of trouble :

Had AIG gone into chapter 11 bankruptcy or been liquidated, as it would have without government aid, no bonuses would ever be paid (they would have had a lower priority under bankruptcy law that AIG's debts to other creditors); indeed, AIG's executives would have long ago been on the street.

Of course Reich uses the non-bailout version of a breakup but the result would still be the same.

The clock is running. Start breaking it up or spend the next few years in political purgatory. I don't want this chapter of history to become known as the AIG presidency.

Rubber City Recovery

The project requests for ARRA dollars keep pouring into the Ohio Recovery web portal. As expected requests far outweigh the available dollars. Just looking at Akron's request alone takes some time.

As of March 3, the City of Akron has submitted about 130 projects with an estimated cost of $478.5 million. The largest projects so far include an expansion of the CSO containment system ($30M), retrofitting lights with LED technology ($25M) and a new trash & recycle transfer station ($20M).

All three major capital outlays have an environmental tie-in and can be started within the next three to six months.

I wish some young enterprising geek would get a mash-up of Ohio's site going in StimulusWatch fashion. Until such time I give you Akron's requests in word cloud format courtesy of Wordle.

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Tea Bagging The Stimulus

The people streaming through Public Square today were not protesting the violence in our city streets or the Kellen Winslow trade. The fifty or so protesters parading around in the rain with home-made signs were there to voice anger over taxes and government spending and communism and the long slow march towards collectivism. It kind of looked like a mini McCain-Palin rally.

The hatred for the stimulus bill and revocation of Reaganomics it represents were the inspiration for the series of nation-wide Tea Party's that were held in America's city's. The events were championed by a coalition of conservative groups and bloggers and held in numerous cities. Even ones that are in desperate economic straits and could use a boost from federal spending.

Michelle Malkin even went as far as to brand the movement as a counterculture of fiscal responsibility . Such parlance is typical to movement conservatism. Where was the fiscal restraint the past eight years? The winger histrionics have started and we're only five weeks into the Obama era.

Apparently there are some people in the greater Cleveland area that took Bobby Jindal's tuesday night speech seriously. Why use the power of government action to sand off the rough edges of the recessionary downturn? Tax cuts will make things all better.

So get out there Cleveland and stand up for your right not to have new roads and bridges. Don't let the government increase the tax burden on your wealthier friends. Surely we can have our never ending war in Iraq and not pay for that either. Tea Party!

Mashing The Stimulus

The power of the collaborative and mashable web is being applied to potential stimulus bill projects. StimulusWatch is to the tracking the ARR projects as IamCaltrain is to transit scheduling. I'm going to follow this and see how it compares with the actual projects submitted. Don't let the mention on O'Reily Radar discourage you.

The developers of the sight are depending on crowdsourcing and the flexibility of platform to generate constructive observations and a real grassroots evaluation of the proposed projects. The mash-up includes real time favorability data to "evaluate project efficacy" based on the description and cost.

Mash Away
Two caveats about the site are in order. The first is that the data source for the site is the U.S. Conference of Mayors submission, MainStreet Economic Recovery Report. The report is a good proxy for what requests will be officially submitted but they are just that, requests. At some point StimulusWatch should shift to following the projects that actually get implemented. This will be easy if the folks at Recovery.org make their data set available in a useful format.

Secondly the site is susceptible to the normal vulnerabilities we see in Web 2.0 outlets like wikis. Trolls, histrionics over the descriptions of projects and bad information are par for the course. Getting caught up on the names alone is not necessarily the best way to harness the wisdom of crowds. Maybe it will encourage citizens to follow up with their own bit of research.

I trust the Obama administration and support the Keynesian thrust of the spending package. I just wonder how it will take Recovery.gov, the official home of ARRA to catch up with StimulusWatch.org? Maybe we will end up being surprised by the web savvy of the official government site once it gets rolling. Who better to break the mold of the technologically Jurassic government than an administration that has shown a knack for utilizing the Internets?

What about the other 33% of the $787 billion program? Can we have one of these sites to track the tax cut portion of the bill? At least the project portion can be scrutinized and measured.

Akron Mashed
Searching by city shows Akron has requested over $1 billion in projects, the largest being the Central Interchange project at a cool $50 million. This is classic infrastructure that should be expected to appease some of the critics. There are plenty of millions more of projects like this if meat and potatoes is what you crave.

The Akron City Schools have requested $111 million to rebuild or rehab schools including $58 million for two new high schools. Getting these projects would be a boon for APS. This money would supplant the borrowing that the system had planned to do as part of the CLC master plan. The benefit is two fold- the schools free up existing dollars for other projects and the future year debt payments are reduced. This is one example of capital dollars having a beneficial operating impact.

It doesn't look like anything has been submitted by the city of Cleveland yet. Apparently the City elders did not have anything ready for the Conference of Mayors report, always a reassuring sign. I’m hoping for a dome on Cleveland Browns Stadium will make it to the list.

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I Am The Stimulus

... I am the walrus.

Imagine if the Democratic party hired the PR firm that created the 'I am Tiger Woods' campaign to plug the ARR Act. I envision a one minute add with flashes of ordinary people saying "I am the stimulus".

A guy on an assembly line, a kid in a classroom or gal in a hard hat on a job site. Simple three second vignettes making the point that the thrust of the legislation was to help the average middle class citizen in a variety of ways.

I'd volunteer to be in that spot. Some of the so called gimmicks will impact my family in a direct way. We are attempting to sell our home. Surely the tax incentives for first time buyers will boost the number of potential buyers in the market. More participants means a quicker sale at a better price. It doesn't stop there.

The lease on our vehicle is up this year and I do plan to take advantage of the associated tax credit for car purchases. The federal dollars that will flow to infrastructure and green energy are front and center in my line of work, local government.

There are plenty of projects that are being submitted on behalf of the NEO local governments that will be able to go forward as a result of the funding. In these tough economic times we'll take what we can get. By my estimation there is nothing fringe about the Recovery Act.


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My Pick For HHS Secretary

The Obama camp should move quickly to fill the remaining open cabinet positions.

The HHS post is the most pressing of the two spots left to fill. The pick for HHS should be a bold one that restores confidence about the vetting process. I suggest this guy.

Strike while the iron is hot I say.

Clearing Ideological Blockage

In the past Presidential press conferences were a call and responses of ill-formed questions followed by a rambling and amusing response from the previous president. The events were actually entertaining if not painful at times.

It's clear after watching Obama give his first prime-time presser that message and style make all of the difference. This president has a more professorial approach to answering questions. His style entails fielding one question and turning it into a smaller version of a policy speech. The key is to not sound preachy or condescending to the audience He was able to make about a dozen questions last nearly an hour. It also prevents the answer from being chopped to pieces by incessant follow ups.

Gone are the embarrassing moments and fumbling on the words. The juvenile nature of some of the questioning is sadly still around in some cases.

Several questions were centered on the new era of bipartisanship that Obama has tried to usher in. Maura Eliason from NPR had the most well formed question on that issue. The answer gave the president the best opportunity to explain what his approach has been and will be for getting buy-in from his GOP adversaries.

With medical precision Obama suggested that perhaps over time the ideological blockage would be removed. Like a clogged artery or a maybe a boil.

Then there were the silly questions. Chuck Todd was concerned that consumption was the cause of the current economic crisis. Silly Chuck you are no Tim Russert. Chip Reid weighed in on bipartisanship then Major Garrett from Fox attempted to create controversy related to something Joe the Biden said. That's the same guy who reported two weeks ago that the "Making Work Pay" tax cut was dead on arrival. The problem with that story is that its' well, false.

Two things occurred that highlighted the way times are a chaning at the White House. One was Sam Stein from HuffPo was called on for a question. Consider it recognition that old media models are quickly fading away. The second was the presence of progressive talker Big Eddy Schultz seated in the front row next to Helen Thomas. Not something I'd expect to see but welcome none the less.

That's The Point

I just watched the President Obama give an impassioned plea to the House Dems to stand tough and get a working economic stimulus bill passed.  That speech was some powerful stuff.  No more cool Barry.  He infused his inspirational style from the campaign trail with the newly acquired leverage of the bully pulpit.  The result was a searing and targeted rebuttal of the last forty-eight hours of GOP childishness on the stimulus bill.

Unfortunately the whole messaging thing that Obama is expected to excel in was not going to well the past few days.  You have the word "pork" showing up along side the stimulus bill in media reports on an increasing basis. The GOP pushback has been successful in muddying the waters by focusing the public eye on minutiae that doesn't even add up to 1% of the bill and ignoring the ridiculous amount of inane tax cuts being left in the plan.

The appearance was part of a ramping up and reclaiming the message campaign that also included a speech earlier in the day as well as this op-ed in the WaPo. I think he would do the cause well to take some of the more direct points in tonight's speech and embed them in the media echo chamber for the next few days. 

I can hear it now, "That's the point of a stimulus bill, you spend money" being repeated all over cable news land.  Enlisting the governors to not only get out there and pump up the plan and make one last plea for increased aid to states and infrastructure spending wouldn't hurt either.

It would be a damn shame if this thing ends up passing as a watered down shell with little chance of having an impact on job creation and GDP growth.

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My Little Piece of Inaugural Paradise

Warning, this post is back dated I didn't have a chance to post until the next day.

Going to Washington to see the inauguration seemed like a great idea on November 5th of 2008. Fast forward to January of 2009 and watching the the thing go down on the television was the more sensible thing to do. Trapped at work in C-Town meant booking to the Palace Theater to catch a bit of history was the only decent option.

The set up at the Palace Theater was great, no lines and a fairly large screen to watch the inaugural coverage in HD. The crowd was a mixture of office dwellers, students and families. I got a kick out of reactions to the various dignitaries being introduced as they entered the seating area behind the dais. Cheers for President Carter, Big Dog and some snickering for the purple scarfed adorned Bush clan. The elder Bush seems to have aged considerably in the last few years.

In between observing the crowd at the Palace and checking the time I picked up some finer points of the scene unfolding on that colorful stage at the Capital. Silly David Brooks, he thinks Obama's brother-in-law was wearing a Princeton scarf. No David, his employer, Oregon State would take issue with that assumption (Paradise Drive, indeed). Who's foot was floating behind Senator Feinstein while she was speaking at the podium? Who let Newt in the good seats? Let's face it Cheney was trying to look like FDR in that wheelchair get up. I hear the chair runs on sneer power.

As the time for Obama to take the oath approached I checked my watch. The musical interlude right before the presidential oath was fantastic. I'll second the many observations that the quartet on stage represented a great slice of what America really looks like. It was a few minutes past noon when Barack Obama and Chief Justice Roberts faced each other to recite the oath of office. What followed was a puzzling and somewhat disturbing occurrence. How does the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court not get that oath right? The irony of a strict constructionist flubbing a passage that is directly quoted in the Constitution was not missed by Andrew Sullivan. What was even more intriguing was how Obama caught the screw up and gave Chief Justice Roberts a chance to correct himself.

The speech was somber and mechanical in nature but was complementary of his election night speech. I have to admit I was still kind of annoyed by the Oath debacle when I heard the speech live. I have found that more meaning is revealed after hearing it a second time. The ground has shifted beneath them, building not destroying and new ways forward are some of the themes that continue to echo in my mind today.

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Obama The Ox

According to the Chinese zodiac 2009 is the year of the ox.  Barack Obama, the man taking the oath of office in one days time is an ox by birth year.  If you believe in these typeologies then we have elected the right person for the right time in our nation's history:

The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.

I hope he lives up to the prescribed attributes of this year's animal, especially the part about work and enduring hardship. His predecessor ran out of steam before the first one hundred days were up.

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Less Triangulating More Ass Kicking

Thomas Frank posits that a President Obama would benefit from not taking up the Clintonian banner of the third way for every major policy initiative.

I agree with Thomas' idea that triangulation or taking cover for the political center in some respects betrays progressive tenets. The attempt to not appear partisan has brought us the some dubious results during the Bush years:

Well, there's Nafta, which proved Democrats could stand up to labor. There's the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. There's the Iraq war resolution, approved by numerous Democrats in brave defiance of their party's left. Triumphs all.

We're just asking for some recognition now that the conditions on the ground have changed. The belief in health care reform, regulation of financial markets and looking for accountability shouldn't be sacrificed because Obama wants to transcend political boundaries.

Take the planned economic stimulus package to be debated in the coming weeks. I don't give a rat's ass if Obama thinks he needs 80 vote to add legitimacy to the Democratic plan. The over reliance on tax cuts in the plan will weaken its effect and all to make sure ten more Republican Senators vote yes. From what I've read sixty is still the necessary number of votes to get something done in the Senate.

One more thing. I'm not confusing reaching out with triangulating. Tapping Republicans to hold cabinet posts, dining with George Will and asking evangelical nutcases to speak on inauguration day is fine. Reaching out is about getting players to come over to your side of the policy fence not moving the goal post to the right. Reaching out could actually widen the appeal of true progressive ideals in the long term. 

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