Ezra Klein is a hoot to read. He is (presumably) paid to write opinion pieces that never seem to reach a solid conclusion or get much beyond mere political musings. A great example is his piece “Six Things Obama Has Done Wrong.” Know how bloggers always like to tell you to read the whole thing, but you don’t, because you know you’ll be taken to some website with popup ads for high school classmates or those animated doubleclick Flash ads that lock up your browser? Well, the Czar is telling you not to bother reading Klein’s link there at all.

His premise is that President Obama has done six things that were tanking his popularity. Klein gives them as (1) He only put one tax cut into the stimulus [which is not true; many were included]; (2) Failure to control the Fed [Klein does not even list how this would be done, since the Fed largely runs with little oversight, so instead he quotes opinion writer Matthew Yglesias—who also fails to understand how the Chairman of the Federal Reserve actually votes (for himself)]; (3) The Fiscal Commission [which he deplores because it will cut liberal programs, probably. Odd that he lists this as a mistake when details were unavailable as of his writing, but no matter]; (4) ARRA [yes, this was a disaster, but Klein admits feeling conflicted on really hating this boondoggle]; (5) The Stimulus [yes, this too was a disaster, but predictably Klein hated it because it wasn’t bigger]; (6) The President has not used up-or-down votes to counter Republican filibusters.

You probably did not ever read that paragraph, either. Fair enough. There is no point, given its source. So here are six disastrous mistakes The Czar believes the President has made:

1. Failure to control Congress. The President arrived on the scene like a bolt: a charismatic, dynamic leader who was going to fix everything wrong with Washington. Of course, he immediately took a back seat to Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, letting them erect a massive legislative circus that he, on rare occasion, would defend with a 45-minute speech on television about making history. He shows no ability to rope in Congress, and he will not: he views himself as a Big Ideas man, and Congress are the little details cogs who make it all work. He fails to understand that Democratic losses were caused by Pelosi and Reid, and not some failure of his still-high personal popularity. Reagan, Bush, and Clinton would have had a field day bullying today’s Congress around. But they are the inmates running the asylum, and Obama? He is just Chance the Gardener.
2. Lack of economic sense. It is not possible to deny this any longer. The President has a fundamental lack of economic understanding. Economist after economist is railing about his handling of every aspect of the economy: from employment (or lack thereof), monetary policy (inflation is a good thing?), taxes (extend the damn cuts already), and so on. Granted, George W. Bush probably could not utilize Tobin’s Q in a real-world problem, either: no one expects (or wants!) a doctorate in economics as president. But, alas, the guys the President put in charge as advisors are almost a fraternity house of C- students. The Czar suggests that you can get a better economic lesson from your next randomly selected taxi cab driver than you will from Goolsbee or Geithner. Yes, the President should have a solid Economics 101 course; and his advisors ought best to have business world experience in graduate level finance.
3. Confusing popularity with populism. The media on the Left call it “a failure to connect,” while the media on the Right term it “Misreading his mandate.” The reality is that the President cannot disassociate his own sense of novelty with his projected arrogance. Upon inauguration, the President lived a rock star lifestyle, goofing off and laughing it up as if he were the intellectual Justin Bieber. He failed to see that people were increasingly resenting this: the lavish parties and vacations while telling people to “buck up,” the endless rounds of golf while airline passengers were punching out terrorists, and—in a chillingly poetic example of irony—going down to the oil-soaked Gulf for a first-hand look at its economic effects while drinking bushslammers and eating ice cream on the beach. He is unable to hide his contempt for the average American (or his fundamental differences with them) much like the classic rock star who insults the audience that pays him millions. One sees in the President that painful look of a germophobe in a crack house. This is not a problem he can fix: it burrows down to the bone.
4. Foreign policy . Clearly the President likes foreign policy, provided he defines it as free travel to all the exotic places he has wanted to go. His fawning inability to see differences between the President of the United States and tinpot dictators makes him no better than the cartoonishly loud American who wonders why he cannot get fries with his meal, although he does think your money is pretty. He has had some success: while his India trip was not perfect, he did quite well at establishing American interests in the region. But looking at China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Israel, we realize the next president will have massive headaches undoing the damage he has caused. No wonder our Secretary of State cannot stand to be in the same country as him.
5. Trusting in Inexperience. You cannot be surprised when a guy with a razor-thin CV becomes President and makes it clear he has no idea what he is doing. In many ways, you will recall, people were concerned that Ronald Reagan lacked sufficient experience in the vast mess he took helm to. But Reagan (and Bush, Clinton, and Bush later) found some pretty smart people with lots of experience to guide him. Not so with Barack Obama: Rahm Emmanuel? Dick Axelrod? Robert Gibbs? Tim Geithner? The President has an evident knack for finding incredibly shallow waders to give him advice. Yes, sadly, they have more experience than he does: but he couldn’t have gone deeper? And the experienced people he did pick were painfully controversial: Chu, Sunstein, and Jones leap to mind. Yes, he made some smart choices, too, but invariably in positions not terribly influential or important to his administration. When you are a kitten, you do not take advice from puppies and raccoons. Actually, that maxim is so painful we leave it here.
6. Partisanship. Nothing with this guy sticks more in the craw of liberals and conservatives than his betrayal at bipartisanship. Republicans had vastly superior proposals for healthcare, regulation improvements, and economic plans—but were flatly refused a seat at any of the tables. And then, when the public caught on to this, they swept out as many Democrats as they could. Suddenly, now, the President is planning to meet and listen with them. Cough. Exactly like when he was campaigning.

Yeah, there are more. But it is time for lunch.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.