WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Great American Impasse. “Not all the Democrats are celebrating the January unemployment numbers as morning in Obama’s America. Robert Reich, Clinton’s labor secretary and one of Via Meadia’s favorite liberals, notes dourly that most of the hiring is happening in lower-wage sectors. . . . Reich and Romney both get the reality that it is the declining fortunes of the middle class that should worry us. And the relationship between the middle class and government benefits and subsidies is complex.”