The more I think of it, the more I think Obama made a disastrous mistake tonight by saying he wanted to forgive student college debt far more quickly if debtors went into “public service.” This could well be considered another version of the Louisiana Purchase or the Cornhusker Bribe—an effort to privilege one class of workers above another. Of course, it will never happen, as it would be impossible to effect (how long would a student have to work in “public service”? how would the term be defined? etc). But even suggesting it makes it easy to advance the populist case that Obama has made it clear he sides with government workers over private-sector workers, and that can very easily be used as a weapon against him, and deservedly so.