NP: Coldplay, Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends

Now that the economic stimulus bill is about to be signed into law, less than a month into Barack Obama's presidency, we're starting to see lots of chatter about what utter bullshit the microstory-focused reporting was during the process. Frank Rich, who I find to be a bit over-the-top sometimes, nails it really well. Steven Benen at Washington Monthly and his predecessor Kevin Drum, now at Mother Jones both use the relentless media culture more as context for the achievement.

Then there's Obama himself, who doesn't seem to be losing the forest for the trees, either:

"I also think that there was a decision made that was political and tactical on their part where they said, 'You know what, if we can enforce conformity among our ranks then it will invigorate our base and will potentially give us some political advantage, either short term or long term,' " Obama said. "And whether that's a smart strategy, I think you should ask them."

That last bit is key, because the GOP is acting like their intransigence is some kind of win for them, but as someone who doesn't care for that kind of political point-scoring, I don't see it. Neither does Obama's team, as evidenced by what David Axelrod had to say in the Frank Rich piece:

“This town talks to itself and whips itself into a frenzy with its own theories that are completely at odds with what the rest of America is thinking,” he says. Once the frenzy got going, it didn’t matter that most polls showed support for Obama and his economic package: “If you watched cable TV, you’d see our support was plummeting, we were in trouble. It was almost like living in a parallel universe.”

With all the talk of the President shooting hoops this weekend, it's almost like the GOP is made up of a bunch of people who think playing fantasy basketball, or maybe some basketball video game, makes them credible basketball players. They're gonna get schooled when they actually play on the hardwood.