On Analogies

AN ARTICLE in today's New York Times on the repair of damaged artwork made me think about the Obama administration. According to the report, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is learning hard lessons about the difficulty of fixing broken masterpieces. Restoration projects often take longer than expected, and sometimes they are unsuccessful. Tonight Barack Obama takes on a role similar to that of the Met's conservators, as he tries to restore the lustre to his presidency. And as with the Met's craftsmen, there is no guarantee he will succeed in piecing his agenda back together.
According to early reports, Mr Obama will use his state-of-the-union address to admit some mistakes and outline plans to create jobs, salvage health-care reform and change the way government works. [...]

Keep reading The state of a presidency on this Economist's blog.