A professorial friend writes:

Jonah,
A great teachable moment, if I were teaching a class right now. Assignment: Read Charles Krauthammer today. Then read Jonah Goldberg. Discuss.

It’s true Krauthammer offers a properly more pessimistic take on events than I do in my column today. But I don’t think our takes are contradictory.

Obama’s ambition creates opportunities that wouldn’t have existed if he opted for a more cautious approach. The risk reward is high for him — and for the opposition. In football, war, or poker, or plenty of other imperfectly analogous situations, when one side goes for broke it creates vulnerabilities the other side can exploit. If Obama had stuck with short passes and a running game, he might not have run up the score so high but he would be in better shape politically.

I agree that conservatives should not underestimate Obama. But I am not as convinced — yet – he’s as savvy politically as Krauthammer is. He makes too many unforced errors, too many moves that can only be explained by incompetence or ideology. From vowing to close Gitmo right away to the New York terror trials, to the Arizona lawsuit, to the oil drilling moratorium, to the effort to make NASA into a Romper Room for the Muslim world (and then deny it a week later).That suggests that Obama may not be as willing or able to pivot to the center if/when the GOP takes Congress.

Krauthammer says, “In the political marketplace, there’s now a run on Obama shares.” He’s right. But the metaphor might be worth exploring. Obama shares were very high two years ago. Part of that valuation stemmed from his own talents and abilities as well as the fact that he was/could be the first black president. But some of that valuation came from a boom in the whole liberal sector. Obama’s no Pets.com, but it’s not clear that he’s Microsoft either. People thought the country was ready for a lurch leftward, that the next progressive era was nigh. No one believed this more than Obama himself.

Now it turns out that the progressive boom is unsustainable in the political marketplace. There’s just not the consumer demand everyone thought there was. That creates opportunities.

But, yes, Dr. K. is right. Let’s not pop the champagne quite yet.