Apropos

Pietro Poggi-Corradini, via Boudreaux:

The People order, spur, nudge, encourage, politicians to go out and play with the market. The Politicians do. They fiddle, tweak, castrate, pick wings off, etc….and eventually things go terribly wrong. A catastrophe ensues. The People get very angry. They shout and tell the Politicians to fix the mess. "It's your job to fix this!". The Politicians in turn, like three-year olds charged to put grandmas set of crystal glasses back into the cupboard, go busily about their business, hauling over-sized delicate objects above their heads, struggling to hang on to several heavy and mis-shaped precious items. This is the world we live in.

Why did Obama win? It's fairly unsurprising, really. There was no "strong, 21st century" campaigning, or the assumption of the "reform mantle." The reality is much simpler: Voters do not seem to realize that the president does not run the economy. They vote as though he does.