I was going to write something about what happened with Obama and healthcare and whatnot, but realized I’d just be repeating myself. The story has played itself out according to the script I wrote before.

For those who weren’t recipients of the relevant email from August ’09, since it was part of a conversation and didn’t go to the advocacy list, here’s what I thought and continue to believe:

–
…what about their whole approach to healthcare reform? Knowing the economy took a hit in the fall [of 2008], they should have restrategized the whole effort right from the start instead of trying to fulfill their campaign plan as closely as possible. They can sell something small now [now = August '09] that is revenue neutral, pass it quickly, declare victory, and go for more when things are better. But instead, they’re still going for the big win, and are likely to lose everything just like the first Clinton whitehouse. And then they’ll lose control of congress in the mid term election, and it’ll simply never happen. Already things are getting pushed back, which all knowledgeable observers know is an effort to move it into the campaign season where it’s extremely unlikely to get passed but instead will become political fodder.

Much fun is made of Bush, but he got his big legislation done early on, including his campaign promise of hefty tax cuts. That’s how you’re supposed to do it. Obama’s losing his chance because they simply don’t know this game well enough. Politics is like playing chess where you don’t know where all the pieces are. Experienced players have a sense of how things are likely to play out. Newbies look at the visible pieces and play the game based on that, and are shocked when things go totally wrong.
–

Actually, I should correct one thing. With the election of Brown in Mass, Obama has failed more spectacularly than even I had imagined possible…

Why would I say this? My mother was older and lived thru the great depression as a child. If you heard the stories I heard when I was growing up you would realize that you should just take a nice long cool deep breath every morning you wake up and feel good. ( at least so far ) Nothing so far is anything to get your panties in a twist about excepting what appears to be a very large losses in liberty due to Obama’s socialist policies and blatant power grabs. Egos may not like getting laid off but that fact is you are still breathing. And that my dear sir is a very very very good thing. Unless you’re a neurotic global warmer your natural state SHOULD be optimism for life is a good thing.

P.S. — if you want to worry about something then worry that our governments will push what was to be a bad recession into a depression. That is a situation that is very likely to be resolved yet again the same way the last depression was. And that was? War. And lest you think that’s out of the realm of possibility think again. Mankind ricochets from crisis to crisis. The reality is humanity acts on the large scale as memory-less. A markov process if memory serves correctly.

Thanks for the encouragement. I agree with the advice as well – we’ll just keep executing and make good things happen. On the bright side, we operate in largely unregulated businesses so the government does not bother us too much…

I can relate perfectly. My posts on happiness or entrepreneurship are much more read.

The issue might be one of credibility. I was the top econ student at Princeton, but I am known to the world as an entrepreneur so people only consider me an expert on entrepreneurship.

Hopefully by continuing to write thoughtful pieces, we can change that.

Fundamentally, it comes down to the fact that people are unwilling to bear short term pain over long term pain. Instant gratification. That, and it seems too many people don’t understand the fundamental idea of supply and demand. It’s like gravity — can’t fight it.

And I’ve also come to realize that there’s nothing we can do about it. So as an entrepreneur, just have to keep your head down, work hard, and make it happen.

Great post.

Over the past 6-9 months, I’ve written a few posts on each issue you write about in this post over on my blog (healthcare, the reserve status of the dollar, zombie banks, saving the automakers etc.) and they prove to be the least read posts, whereas my highest read posts are about travel and entrepreneurship. It could be that I’m a crappy political economy writer, but I’m betting it’s that people don’t want to hear about the problems we are facing and would rather believe in the “green shoots.” I think these types of posts are important to at least get the other side out there. Well done.