THE JOHN GALT PRESIDENT! Reader Bruce Giese emails:

The rest of the world became inflexible and inefficient socialist/communist states which relied on the US providing a dynamic consumer market. Our allies had weak militaries and big nanny governments. Our enemies had an easy scapegoat.

Obama and Congress are taking us down the same path as our allies, and the dynamic US ‘Atlas’ is shrugging. I wonder if this terrifies our allies and enemies alike?

Mostly the allies, I’d guess. But this raises an interesting thought: If you were a closet Randian and wanted to discredit big government for generations by running it into the ground, in what ways would you act differently from the Obama Administration so far? The combination of grandiose promises and inept execution, and the repeated elevation of tax cheats to high office, certainly argues in favor of that analysis . . . .

UPDATE: Applying Occam’s Razor.