Smart Public Policy

Bob Herbert writes today:

One of the reasons the U.S. is in such deep trouble is that it has stopped being smart — turning its back on excellence, sophistication and long-term planning — in its public policies and corporate behavior. We’ve seen it in Iraq, in New Orleans, in the fiscal policies of the Bush administration, in the scandalous neglect of public education, in the financial sector meltdown, the auto industry and on and on. We’ve lionized dimwits. And now we’re paying the price.

This is what Obama intends to do, and what the conservative Republicans could never have done, with their demonizing of the public sector (except for the military, of course). And it is where the Republicans need to get to if they ever want to return to power.