It’s gotta really irk Michael Barone that the nation hasn’t yet totally collapsed…but a guy can still hope
Michael Barone is a “conservative” with a great affection for the Washington establishment…and for that is widely respected in “moderate” GOP circles.
As a “senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, which some might consider a mouthpiece of the Republican establishment, Michael suffered great dismay at the success of Donald Trump. Barone did not go as far as the Weekly Standard’s Billy Kristol, who seemed openly supportive of and very hopeful for Hillary Clinton’s candidacy but he would never, in our opinion, be considered a supporter of President Trump. (In his ‘youth’, by the way, Mr. Barone was a supporter of George McGovern’s hapless 1972 quest for the Oval Office. Jus’ noting).
This column by Barone is somewhat representative of the mildly snarky, obvious reluctance of the Barones’ of the Beltway establishment to acknowledge any apparent, or possible, accomplishment of the new tenant in the White House.
But . . . don’t despair Michael, and the rest of the GOPe commentariot. Barron’s grudging acknowledgement won’t affect future appearances on the various Sunday political shows, sharing your political wisdom.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
An excerpt from Barone’s column in the Washington Examiner:
Perceptions are that Trump’s policies are working
Perceptions matter. People make decisions, even life-altering decisions, based on what they perceive as likely to happen. To the extent that public policy affects such decisions, the perception of likely policy change can affect behavior even before the change happens — even if it ends up never happening.
Something like that seems to be happening in America — and around the world — in the two months since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. People are making decisions based on perceptions of how he might change the country’s direction.
Take the economy. The numbers in the jobs report for February, Trump’s first full month in office, showing an increase of 235,000 jobs, are not wildly out of line with some monthly reports in recent years.
In contrast to the years of the Obama stimulus program, when the bulk of new jobs came in the public sector, it appears that the increase here is in the private sector. Moody’s Analytics says there were 298,000 new private sector jobs in February, far more than the 189,000 it expected.
DLH
