Notes from the bully pulpit: no one hears you when unemployment is at 10%

As Obama gears up for the fiscal cliff end game, David Corn is out with a timely reminder that the deal Obama struck in December 2010, trading extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy for a payroll tax cut, unemployment benefit extension and other stimulus, was far from the cave-in that liberal allies portrayed it as. Rather, it was a successful a bid to win "something bigger and better: more stimulus to aid the ailing economy."

This was actually obvious at the time, for those with eyes to see. According to Mark Zandi, the Democratic proposals that became part of the deal yielded $336 billion worth of stimulus from 2010-2012.  Even Paul Krugman admitted at the time that the provisions Obama fought for were likely to provide significant help to the economy. In concert with the payroll tax cut and and unemployment benefits extension Obama bludgeoned the GOP into accepting in early 2012, those stimulative measures probably secured his reelection.

While debunking the tax-deal-as-cave-in myth, Corn does subscribe to another narrative that does have some truth to it over the long haul but in my view is also exaggerated:  that Obama was ineffective at communicating his policy.  Here's Corn's read:

The busted grand bargain was terrible -- but was it even worse than we knew at the time?

When I read the Washington Post's fly-on-the-wall account of last summer's failed negotiations for a "grand bargain" on deficit reduction, I felt it added more detail to what we already knew: Obama was ready to cut a horrendous bargain, deeply cutting spending while adding only $800 billion in new revenue over ten years, before the Senate Gang of Six unveiling made him raise his "ask" and so licensed the Republicans to walk away.

Chait, however -- who was quite vocal about the gross inadequacy of Obama's proposed deal at the time -- asserts that the Post's account reveals the pending deal to be even worse then was known publicly last July: