What Goes Around. . .

Tips of the hat to RCP and Megan McArdle for unearthing these two gems.

Here is Barack Obama in a speech in 2005, calling for then-president George W. Bush to give it up on social security privatization:

"I mean, the fact of the matter is, is the president has been on his 60-day tour, and everywhere he goes the numbers just get worse. The American people have essentially voted on this proposal and really what you have is a situation now where I think that the president and the Republican Congress are going to need to figure out a way to save face and — and step back a little bit. And if — if they let go of their egos — listen, I've been on the other side of this where — particularly with my wife. (laughter) Where I've gotten in an argument and then at some point in the argument it dawns on me, you know what, I'm wrong on this one and it's — it's — it's irritating, it's frustrating. You don't want to admit it, and so to the extent that we can provide the president with a graceful mechanism to — to say we're sorry, Dear, then I think that would be — that would be helpful."

Second, a June 2005 New York Times editorial urging Bush to admit defeat in Congress and stop blaming Democratic "obstruction":

"Congressional Republicans have begun talking with top White House aides about an exit strategy — not from Iraq, but from the winless quagmire of President Bush's campaign to privatize Social Security. Mr. Bush has responded to this new political reality by, first, insisting that the American people do not yet understand the virtues of privatization, and second, blaming the failure of his deservedly unpopular plan on Congressional Democrats.

That's absurd.

After listening to Mr. Bush talk of little else during his second term, the American people understand quite well what he is proposing for Social Security, and by wide margins reject it. In fact, the polls show that the more they learn about privatization, the less they like it. . . .

Mr. Bush has reacted by railing against Democrats for obstruction — as if Democrats are duty-bound to breathe life into his agenda and, even sillier, as if opposing a plan that the people do not want is an illegitimate tactic for an opposition party."