Michiko Kakutani reviews Noam Scheiber's 'The Esacpe Artists'

Echoing other commentators on the left, Mr. Scheiber also argues that the White House was slow to realize that “the G.O.P. had no interest in compromise,” and that it repeatedly caved to the Republicans over taxes, the deficit and the debt ceiling. He contends that Mr. Obama did little to line up Democratic support in Congress for his jobs bill and other policies, and that he “rarely exploited the massive stature of his office as a tool for influencing legislation” during the making of the original stimulus in 2009, during the initial push for health care reform, or during bargaining over the Bush tax cuts and the standoff over the deficit.

Mr. Scheiber’s conclusion? “That Team Obama helped avert catastrophe” — that is, a slide into another Great Depression — is “beyond question,” but despite its heroic efforts, “the Obamans nonetheless failed at the task they set for themselves — of restoring the economy to something resembling its precrisis vitality.” Given that a lot of pre-2008 prosperity rested on shaky grounds (a housing bubble, huge amounts of leverage and deregulatory policies that fueled the Wall Street meltdown), and given recent sprouts of hope on the economic front (a rising Dow, an improving jobs picture), it feels like a glib and premature conclusion to what is a revealing, if polemical, book.

How is this glib? How is it premature? Why was there no plan B? There was a bubble but there was also a boom. Then there was a downturn. Kakutani doesn't appreciate how bad the downturn has been.

Team Obama could have done a number of things which they didn't do. If Obama is re-elected it's because the Republican field is so bad.