Whatever It Takes? No, It Takes Whatever

Paul Krugman, NYT

I think Josh Marshall gets this right. Obama came across relatively relaxed last night, basically because he knows two things: he isn’t getting anything substantive out of the GOP, but he’s achieved a lot, and his signature achievement is looking increasingly secure. The real theme of the SOTU was “Whatever.”

I think the fading of the deficit both in reality and as an issue is important here. A missive from Fix the Debt landed in my inbox:

We are disappointed that President Obama did not choose to place a greater focus on our nation’s long-term debt problems in tonight’s State of the Union address. The President should be actively working with Congress seeking solutions to our debt problem rather than relegating it to the political sidelines. The State of the Union was a chance for him to lead on this issue instead of leaving these tough choices to be made by the next President.

That’s the whine of people who have found themselves irrelevant. Obama isn’t afraid of the big bad deficit any more, and he knows that there won’t be a Grand Bargain, so there’s nothing he can or should do on the front that absorbed so much of his energy for three years.

(More here.)