Why Obama's Speech Doesn't Matter

President Obama is scheduled to give a major speech on the economy at some point next week, but Ezra Klein has stopped pretending that matters. The idea that Obama’s rhetoric could rouse Congress into action is a fantasy “found in Aaron Sorkin dramas and liberal op-ed columns,” he writes for Bloomberg. In real life, John Boehner has already issued a press release deriding the speech. “Where else but Washington would you see a news release responding to … statements that haven’t been uttered?”

“Obama’s speech will achieve nothing,” Klein asserts, because “the two parties disagree on the most profound question in Washington. It’s not: How do we fix the economy? It is: Who should win the next election?” Boehner is not going to undermine GOP chances by handing Obama an economic accomplishment, and everyone knows it. Politicians and journalists are only paying attention to the speech because we “need to seem like we’re doing something.” (More Ezra Klein stories.)