I have a brief comment about Obama’s attempt to goad lefties into voting this fall. One other thing: In the Rolling Stone interview, Obama says, as he has said before, that in an ideal world he would not be dealing with a weak economy and thus could just move from progressive triumph to triumph. He also says, as has been widely noted, that progressives who voted for him in 2008 will reveal themselves to be unserious if they fail to vote this year. What both of these comments ignore is that it’s precisely the weak economy and weakly-engaged voters that resulted in his big margin and padded congressional majority in the 2008 elections. Take either out of the picture, and Obama still wins but lacks the votes to screw up American health care. Take the good and bad together, Mr. President.