The Audacity of Data
A pretty good article from the New Republic on Obama's advisors and the way his policy shop comes up with his plans and positions. One of the main points is this:
Despite Obama's reputation for grandiose rhetoric and utopian hope-mongering, the Obamanauts aren't radicals--far from it. They're pragmatists--people who, when an existing paradigm clashes with reality, opt to tweak that paradigm rather than replace it wholesale. As Thaler puts it, "Physics with friction is not as beautiful. But you need it to get rockets off the ground." It might as well be the motto for Obama's entire policy shop.
Pragmatism isn't often associated with Obama recently due to the overwhelming focus on his words and speaking ability. The lack of ideology that is the other point of the article gets some play, but more as a function of "reaching across the aisle" than as a measure of his policy proposals.
What I really like about the article is the view inside how Obama and his crew make decisions, both in economics and foreign policy; using the reams of available data to tweak the system to their benefit. It is a realistic approach that leads to better judgement about how to affect change.
And judgement trumps experience every time.
