MY 2 CENTS ON PROF. WESTEN'S OP-ED

Prof. Drew Westen has done some groundbreaking work on the role our emotions play in political judgments and in yesterday's NY Times, suggested this alternative to Pres. Obama's Inaugural Address:

“I know you’re scared and angry. Many of you have lost your jobs, your homes, your hope. This was a disaster, but it was not a natural disaster. It was made by Wall Street gamblers who speculated with your lives and futures. It was made by conservative extremists who told us that if we just eliminated regulations and rewarded greed and recklessness, it would all work out. But it didn’t work out. And it didn’t work out 80 years ago, when the same people sold our grandparents the same bill of goods, with the same results. But we learned something from our grandparents about how to fix it, and we will draw on their wisdom. We will restore business confidence the old-fashioned way: by putting money back in the pockets of working Americans by putting them back to work, and by restoring integrity to our financial markets and demanding it of those who want to run them. I can’t promise that we won’t make mistakes along the way. But I can promise you that they will be honest mistakes, and that your government has your back again.”

I think this is pretty close to what Pres. Obama needed to say but other liberal bloggers have been giving Westen some flak. Jonathan Chait flat-out thinks it's foolish for Westen to concentrate on political rhetoric and that's pretty much the tack Steve Benen took.  Given the tremendous damage the Noise Machine has done to our political discourse, I am frankly astounded at their criticisms.