Keith Hennessey, a seasoned hand at congressional-executive branch negotiations, delivers a firm and I think irrefutable verdict on Barack Obama’s budget strategy: “The president’s new strategy guarantees two more years of fiscal stalemate and poisons the well on the most important policy question facing American policymakers: how to permanently solve the long-term fiscal problem caused by the unsustainable growth of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.” I suppose you can try to dismiss Hennessey as a Republican partisan—he worked in the Bush White House and for Senate Majoirty Leader Trent Lott—but readers of his blog will realize that he’s a clear-sighted analyst who can enter into a sympathetic understanding of those on the other side of the partisan divide.

Hope and change!