"Classic Obama"

Ezra on The ABC interview:

The interview is classic Obama: Measured, calm, analytical. In a sense, it's comforting. But in another sense, it's not. It's easy enough to see what Obama thinks should be done. But he explicitly shies away from saying what Congress should do, and why. Having explained why paring the bill back won't work, he never says that it shouldn't be done.

Indeed, much of the interview reads like a very smart political analyst offering a powerless but perceptive summary of the situation in Congress. Obama clearly understands what's going on in the country and what animates his policy agenda. The question is what is he going to do about it, or maybe more to the point, what is he going to be seen to be doing about it?

I'm not understanding how you can, on the one hand, say that what actually needs to be done is exactly that which will be most controversial, and then turn around and say we need to "move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on." Almost by definition, the things that are most controversial will be those that people don't agree on. If what's most needed is the same thing as what's most controversial, how much consensus do you really expect? Seriously, I'm baffled.