David Broder Enters This Year's Stupidest Man Alive Contest

There should be resignations from the Washington Post every day.

Today, more than usual, they should be in disgust at the low quality of the thought expressed.

David Broder:

Centrist on the rise: [Barack Obama] has regained the economic initiative from the victorious Republicans, separated himself from the left of his own party and staked a strong claim to the territory where national elections are fought and won: the independent center... [by] opting to accommodate reality by acceding to the Republican demand for maintaining all the Bush tax cuts... yielding temporarily to the GOP on its insistence for preserving the top-bracket tax cuts.... [T]he $900 billion this deal will add to the national debt increases the pressure on Obama and Congress to undertake the kind of tough-love budgetary changes outlined by the presidential commission on deficits... improves the odds for tax reform, an effort that Obama is now perfectly positioned to lead...

If adding $900 billion to the national debt is a step toward fiscal responsibility and tax reform, why stop there? Why not add $3 trillion to the national debt? Or $9 trillion?

To say that we should add $900 billion to the debt because it increases the pressure on us to deal with our long-term fiscal problems is like saying that we should cut off our hand in order to increase the pressure on us to go to the doctor.

Don't get me wrong: I think the $900 billion deal is better than nothing--although I bitterly, bitterly regret Obama's failure to hold out for a short-term debt-limit increase and for long-term standby tax increases and spending cuts: "I will sign no bills that increase the debt looking ten years forward" ought to be his line in the sand.

Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?