Angry in the Great White North

Last night, there was a startling story of remarkable political bravery.  Michael Ignatieff, the embattled Liberal Party leader, was going to change the channel on the political debate.  The deficit, he would argue, is too dangerous to hope to grow out of.  Instead, he would engage Canadians in a discussion about tax hikes.

Wow.  I mean, this was powerful stuff.  Would Michael Ignatieff recast himself as the "grown up" among Canadian political leaders?  That seemed to be the plan.

Any politician willing to stake out an unpopular position is either crazy or brilliant.

Is Michael Ignatieff crazy?  Is Michael Ignatieff brilliant?

As it turns out, Michael Ignatieff is neither.

The musing about a difficult tax-hike discussion came from unnamed Liberals, in a story that ran late yesterday evening:

Michael Ignatieff is preparing to embark on a politically risky "adult conversation" with Canadians about the painful measures necessary to eliminate the country's ballooning deficit - including the possibility of tax hikes.

Senior party insiders told The Canadian Press that the Liberal leader is about to launch a blunt discussion of the realistic options available for staunching the flow of red ink.

That includes tax increases, major spending cuts, remaining mired in deficit for years longer than anticipated, or some combination of the three.

Like I said, this is a potential game changer.  It represents a huge risk, but if Michael Ignatieff could convince people that tax hikes were needed (not my opinion, by the way) without being blasted apart, then who knows how the board gets rearranged?

I didn't think he could pull it off, frankly, but now we'll never know for sure.  Why?  Because without even waiting for the first wafting of criticism, Michael Ignatieff himself has backed down, issuing this statement first thing this morning:

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff insists he has no plans to raise taxes.

Ignatieff issued a statement after senior party insiders told The Canadian Press that Ignatieff is about to conduct an "adult conversation" with Canadians about the painful measures necessary to eliminate the deficit.

Officials say the discussion would include tax increases, major spending cuts and remaining in deficit for years.

The insiders told The Canadian Press that Ignatieff wouldn't disclose his own prescription for taming the deficit until the brink of an election.

In a statement, Ignatieff said "I've been clear, tax increases are not part of my plan."

I think this represents a fascinating improvement in Michael Ignatieff.   Previous flip-flops which were of the form:

policy statement
followed by criticism
followed by diametrically opposed policy statement
followed by snickering

This flip-flop seems to of the form:

policy statement
followed immediately by diametrically opposed policy statement
followed by snickering
[with criticism bursting into the room, panting from futile effort to get here on time]

I think that if we were to dissect the precise timing of this flip-flop, we would find that the policy statement and the diametrically opposed policy statement were prepared at the same time!

In this way, Michael Ignatieff could stake out a position, and then the opposite position, in the political equivalent of warp speed.

And as all Star Trek fans know, you can only engage your warp engines in a vacuum, which is all that is left as Michael Ignatieff makes a foray into policy then quickly vacates his staked out position, leaving nothing behind.

Trial Balloon?  Was this a trial balloon?  No, for the simple reason that a trial balloon has two distinct properties.  First, it is attributed to someone else other than the leader, so that if the criticism is harsh, the leader can safely say it wasn't his idea.  Second, it has to have been floated for enough time to garner some criticism in the first place.  I have no idea what to call this thing, but it wasn't a trial balloon.

Next step?  Michael Ignatieff stakes out diametrically opposed positions inside the same statement.

Burning more bridges: Michael Ignatieff's staggering incompetence is starting to burn bridges with his most obsequious apologists.  Steve V of Far and Wide waxed eloquently (and at length, too, as this is a tiny excerpt) on Michael Ignatieff's bold move:

If you're going to defeat this government, you MUST get ahead of the curve on the economic file, you must be BOLD.  The primiary obstacle the Liberals face, people can't identify with their brand, we're wishy washy, we lack FORM. With that in mind, I have nothing but applause for this new thrust.

If Liberals want to seize the economic file, then we must present ourselves as the one's ready to deal with this daunting circumstance.

I applaud Ignatieff, no matter the circumstance that's lead to this epiphany.

I read this post yesterday.  And now with Michael Ignatieff cowering behind the curtains, Steve V has had to issue an update:

UPDATE

Oh nevermind, nothing to see here.

Maybe they'll self destruct, or maybe it isn't the spring anymore :)

I wonder who Steve V is hoping will self-destruct?  The Conservatives?  Or the Liberals?  You know, just to get it over with.

Calgary Grit is unimpressed as well.  Progress for Progressives wants to clean house.  Let Freedom Rain is so fed up that he can't even be bothered to offer advice.  Other Liberal bloggers will join in over the course of the day, or just shake their heads and wonder just how they got this Ignatieff thing so completely wrong.  If the Liberal bloggers aren't behind Ignatieff, then what's left? A BCer in Toronto predicts the Liberal ship will crash on the rocks unless the aimless leadership changes (though he doesn't actually suggest replacing Michael Ignatieff).  Smart is The New Black calls on the OLO to be replaced.