Sitting in the morning chill of Ashland, OR, cup of coffee near my lips, Measure for Measure in the wings, I was flipping through the NY Times headlines on my iphone, when I started in disbelief, touching the cup edge to my mouth and burning my lip.

What’s the matter? said Dear One.

I showed her the headline:

White House Debates Fight on The Economy 

She sighed and handed it back to me. Still debating, after all these years.

Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider can take it from here:

A NYT report on the economic policy thinking inside the White House right now is easily one of the most devastating things you’ll have read about Obama in a long time.

Just the title, White House Debates Fight on The Economy, as if maybe perhaps the sorry economy is something worth getting into a fight over, is sad.

But it gets worse.

His top economic advisor, Gene Sperling, is pushing for him to pursue things like tax breaks for corporations that hire.

Snooze.

On the other hand, his political folks like David Plouffe and Bill Daley want him to pursue pragmatic, passable policies like free trade deals and better protections for patent-holders. Supposedly the premise is that these issues appeal to independent voters. This can’t possibly be real. If there’s an independent, undecided voter out there who will tip towards Obama because he gets a free trade deal with Korea passed in the next year, please show him to us.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obamas-economic-policy-disaster-2011-8#ixzz1V1ZYPfHo

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