Learning over Time, vs. Churning the Party Line

Obama's administration may well be a concentrated version of the Jimmy Carter presidency. He may well be looked back upon as the worst leader in the history of the republic. He may well turn the United States into a blown-out shell of its former self. Citizens may well resort to anarchy, or worse yet, veganism. He may well fail so badly that future citizens will reinstitute slavery in a knee-jerk reaction against him. He may well turn us into the Soviet Union Part Deux.

Then again, he may succeed, and may turn the United States into the sort of nation it needs to become to succeed in a new day that is dramatically different from the one on which the sun has already set.

It will come down to whether Obama and his administration are mainly a learning organism or an ideological organism. Learning leaders survive and ultimately thrive; ideological ones flounder over the long haul. Bush and Carter attempted mainly ideology. Obama seems to be more of an ideologue than I'd have guessed three months ago, but he and his people still seem to be learners. Are they sufficiently interested in learning. I hope so.

Ideologues would have crowed that today's 500 point Dow jump vindicated their economic prescriptions. The embattled Geithner shows some maturity here in not needing to make that case. Obama's team may well be learners, playing for the long haul. Their ideological opponents, who need to imagine themselves as superior even if it requires them to light candles and pray that the economy fails over the next four years, will detest this and will look for the next opportunity to resuscitate their argument that short-term stock movements are exposing America's contempt for Obama's leadership. Fair enough. But Obama's administration appears to be playing for the long haul, and may be playing wisely. Let's hope they are indeed more interested in learning than in ideological battles.