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Nov 12, 2013

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Phoenix Woman

Heh. If Obama really was following the Alinsky playbook, he wouldn't be negotiating with himself all the time.

Alinsky, as do many people who negotiate for a living, insisted that your starting position always be something you believe to be near-impossible to achieve, so that when it's inevitably whittled down you arrive at what you really thought you could get all along. Obama almost always seems to start out where he wants to end up, which is why I'm glad that Harry and Nancy made him largely stay out of this year's budget and debt ceiling negotiations.

By the way: Hardcore purity progs of my acquaintance tend to freak out and stop reading Rules when they get to this part. They don't like it when he talks about how getting 10% of what you asked for is actually a big victory. (Yes, folks, the most famous radical of our time, the one the GOP waves around like a demon doll, was an incrementalist in practice.)

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