They must be. Nothing the right does is legitimate in liberal eyes, so there must be a disqualifying factor hidden somewhere here. Savor, please, the rich, nougaty irony of a leftist complaining about “grassroots” movements actually being orchestrated from the top down.

As for his tacit point about all deficits being equal, er, not so. In fact, if anything good comes from The One’s term, I suspect it’ll be the way he’s keenly concentrated America’s imagination on spending issues. During Bush’s terms, the idea that social security was going bankrupt was practically a hypothetical. Not anymore.