This is actually much worse than realizing that the captain doesn’t know how to fly the plane. This is more like discovering that he has also locked the cockpit door and, while emitting a stream of ‘happy talk’, switched off his incoming intercom link.

I think we need to understand though that, given their own set of choices, the Obama team have little alternative but to push hard left now.

Consider first that for several decades the standard of living for ordinary people in the US has been about 30% higher than for ordinary people in Europe. That’s the sort of difference it can be difficult to conceal, but the task can still be achieved with the help of an almost uniformly supportive media.

Then take into account that Europe is going into this crisis in much, much worse financial shape than the US, and that the aftermath of the crisis, and the associated debt burden, will weigh on living standards for decades after this is over. Just about inevitably then, if nothing were done now to impact the relative standard of standard of living of ordinary people, the US would come out of this crisis with a living standard more like 60% higher than Europe’s, which would be far harder to obfuscate.

Just think about what that would do to the left’s political push to make the US economy more closely resemble Europe’s. Their entire economic program would become a public joke for at least a generation.

This is why the Obama team has to press hard now to get the US economy weighed down with all the burdens imposed by a socialized economy, even in the middle of a financial crisis, and it’s why they will not be diverted until the moment when they lose control of congress in 2010.

It’s like discovering that, in addition to everything else, the Captain in the pilot’s seat has his layoff notice in his pocket, and unless he can pull off a miraculous crash landing to make himself look like a hero then he’s going to be out of a job.