How to sabotage a recovery

The GOP desperately wants Obama to repeat FDR's notorious mistake of 1937

By Gene Lyons

Having recently praised President Barack Obama's skills as a political counterpuncher, it's worth noting that in politics, as in boxing, it's risky to let your opponent take the initiative.

Many thought Bernard Hopkins clearly outpointed Little Rock's Jermain "Bad Intentions" Taylor in their first middleweight title fight in 2005, but the aggressive young challenger got the decision. See, there's politics in prizefighting. Until Taylor subsequently exhibited a glass chin, he was that sport's next big thing.