Ambushing the Tea Party

Writing as “Spengler” in his Asia Times  column, our friend David Goldman explains how  Obama could stir a Tea Party crisis  and use it to expand the state’s power yet further. The article begins:

President Barack Obama’s best hope of re-election lies in provoking Republicans to force the United States into technical default, engineering a brief but severe financial crisis in order to appear as crisis-manager-in-chief. The Tea Party movement may be marching into a political ambush, in which Obama will be able to portray the born-again budget-cutters as irresponsible fanatics who threaten to tip America into a new depression. The now unpopular president then would assume the role of national savior in time of crisis.

The possible scenario he describes is perfectly plausible. While the administration doesn’t seem very good at government, it’s very good at politics.

Claire Berlinski responded in Ricochet , with a useful reference to Mrs. Thatcher’s strategy.