I began to read this Bob Shrum column ready to mock it mercilessly — Shrum’s last bit of advice to the president was to give a big speech, a thoroughly original idea — but I actually see some proposals that are, by his standards, pretty good:

So demand that the tax cuts be made permanent for most Americans, but not for the top two percent. And don’t keep that money, for now, for the federal Treasury; fight to reallocate it to two years of additional tax relief for the hard-pressed middle class. That’s a choice to fight an election on — between more help for the many or another windfall for the few . . .
There’s also room for a little political jujitsu here. To shore up fragile markets, the President could propose a permanent 15 percent rate for capital gains and investment. This wouldn’t be an ideologically pure exercise in economic justice. But it’s a pragmatic measure that could boost markets, sending a powerful, positive signal to voters. More than that, it will generate more investment and jobs — not in the distant future, but in the next two years. So there’s something in this policy for Main Street, not just Wall Street.

(The current capital gains tax rates are . . . complicated.)

When Bob Shrum argues that the revenue from a tax hike on one group of Americans (the wealthiest 2 percent) ought to be used to lower taxes on another group of Americans (the rest), some might see the usual class warfare. But I note that he’s conceding that Americans will not, at this moment, accept the notion that the federal government needs more revenue and that raising taxes overall is justified. What’s more, we’ve got Ted Kennedy’s speechwriter lamenting how impending tax hikes are going to hurt the investing class.

This is almost a white flag.