Krugman: Obama Wasn’t The One We’ve Been Waiting For

[Bluebear]

Incoming.

====

Health care reform — which is crucial for millions of Americans — hangs in the balance. Progressives are desperately in need of leadership; more specifically, House Democrats need to be told to pass the Senate bill, which isn’t what they wanted but is vastly better than nothing. And what we get from the great progressive hope, the man who was offering hope and change, is this:

I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill. Now I think there’s some things in there that people don’t like and legitimately don’t like.

In short, “Run away, run away”!

Maybe House Democrats can pull this out, even with a gaping hole in White House leadership. Barney Frank seems to have thought better of his initial defeatism. But I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/he-wasnt-the-one-weve-been-waiting-for/

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[ruggerson]

2. "he never liked him anyway"

will be the canned response.

[Cant trust em]

5. There's always a canned response.

Every side has theirs.

Insert boiler plate pap here.

[Radical Activist]

22. And a fair one. It's true.

Spreading defeatism doesn't help advance the cause. There's nothing constructive about this essay.

[Grand Taurean]

3. k/r

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Thanks for carrying water for the unpopular as shit Senate bill, Paul.

Krugman has been a major propagandist for the corporate sell out POS bill that everyone hates and is at least partially responsible for Coakley losing yesterday.

[Bluebear]

8. How was Krugman to blame for Coakley losing?

Honestly curious what the link is there.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. Contributing to the Villagers' echo chamber of reinforcement, mostly.

He certainly wasn't an outsider offering unbiased criticism, though he played one (unconvincingly) in the NYT.

[lolly]

27. "Major Propagandist?"

He acknowledges its flaws elsewhere, says it's better than nothing, which is probably what we'll end up with now.

Certainly room to disagree, but he's hardly been "shilling" for it.

[HughMoran]

6. Even I'm hitting my patience limit

Shit or get off the pot!

[riderinthestorm]

7. I feel like this. I can't help it but I do. So slay me. nt

[flyarm]

9. gosh Krugman is all over the map lately..I don't know which one of him will show up each day..eom

[yourout]

10. He really doesnt get it.....if you pass the Senate Bill you guarantee a blood bath next Nov.

Ram Medicare 4 all thru reconciliation and the Dems will be in power for 20 years.

[Bluebear]

+1000

[lolly]

30. "He?"

Krugman or Obama?

Because one is the president and could, conceivably, possibly, have some hand in getting legislation passed. For reasons that entirely escape me, he hasn't lifted a finger to do this in the last year.

[flamingdem]

34. IS THIS POSSIBLE??? nt

[flyarm]

12. Krugman..we don't need supporters..we need leaders and if his supporters believed in this bill..they

are flat out stupid!

The senate bill is shit and you know it Krugman!

[Cronus Protagonist]

13. He jumped the shark today.

Disgraceful.

[Yurovsky]

14. agree 100%

one less article I'll have to read each morning...

[jillan]

15. He took the words right out of my mouth ---

"... Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in."


I questioned and questioned and questioned many of his true supporters if he was really ready for this job.
But - unlike Krugman, I am not ready to give up on him.

[NeeDeep]

16. The Rebubs are wringing their hands

in hopes that the Senate bill or something close passes so they can do what they do best, mischaracterize, lie, decieve and stamp all over it. They'll run to kill it and repeal it as huge burden to the middle class, it's just gas on a fire that Obama won't be able to put out.

[sabrina 1]

33. They don't have to mischaracterize that bill. It is a

horrendous bill, a huge giveaway to Corporate America. Krugman is the one I am losing faith in if he supported such a travesty.

Passing that bill as it came out of the Senate, would be political suicide for the Democratic Party, like a handing a weapon to Republicans becuase they are actually right for once, for the wrong reasons as always, about that bill.

Then when they gain a majority, they will pass something very similar, since it is filled with Republican ideas, mandates, fines, tax on health care premiums, selling across state lines etc. They are only opposing it for political reasons.

Progressives are opposing it because it is a DLC , corporate bill that will devastate the poor and middle class.

[G_j]

17. would the Dem leadership and the corporate media ever allow us the one we've been waiting for?

I don't think so.

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. No they wouldn't and especially now, they won't. We'll get only corporate approved candidates

from now on. Unlike the corporate approved candidates of late. :silly:

[greatscott15]

18. Start Over

No body likes the current healthcare bill liberal or conservative. It is a watered down mis-mash of nothing but higher taxes and more cost. Really doesn't help the people without care. And this is an anchor pulling Obama and us down. Time to move on to other things like the env.

[GodDamLiberal]

19. Stick to economics Krugman

You know something about that.

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

23. Even that is in doubt

What he won his Nobel for isn't what he yammers about, his expertise is specialized. His economics cred plummets quickly once he leaves his comfort zone.

Kind of like how Roger Penrose can be brilliant in one area of science and basically crank in another that is tangentially related. You'd think this wouldn't happen but it does.

[lolly]

28. No it's not.

So,tell me, what has he been wrong about?

He predicted that Bush's insane corporate crony policies would result in disaster back when everybody was bouncing happily on the bubble.

He called for a stronger stimulus back when many were still timidly begging for a "bipartisan" bill.

He was right about Bush, he's right about Obama.

And the Nobel Committee was right about him!

[lolly]

29. Self Delete--repeat

[liberalpragmatist]

20. Eh, today was a bad day for Democrats

And I think most of us - myself included - were pretty damn pissed at all of our elected Dems for the shitshow. Honestly, this was probably the worst day of Obama's presidency.

So I don't blame Krugman for getting angry.

But I think the news seems better tonight. Barney Frank walked back his statements saying health care reform was dead, some House progressives indicated willingness to pass the Senate bill if paired with a reconciliation bill. Labor endorsed that strategy, the White House, despite (stupidly, IMO) talking up a "pared down bill," said having the House pass the Senate bill was a preferred option, and, crucially, in the Senate, Reid, Baucus, and Kent Conrad all signaled they could put the "fixes" through reconciliation.

[saracat]

21. Oh dear. some are not going tom 'like " Krugman again.

[Bluebear]

25. :)

[Vidar]

24. K&R.

[CBR]

26. I think "We are the ones we've been waiting for" not Obama. nt

[Edweird]

31. "vastly better than nothing". Bullshit.

[Echo In Light]

32. "Unprecedented" was an easy sell for Amurikans

[donheld]

35. k & R

[hyphenate]

37. some of us saw this more than 18 months ago

but we weren't listened to, nor was our viewpoint given any credence. Like some others, I thought of leaving DU completely, but instead I took a vacation from it.

Things haven't changed that much here since then, and I am sad to see WAY too many stalwarts being TS'ed--people who have been here for a very long time. The whole mood at DU has gone to the center, and sometimes to the right of center, and that's sad.

IMHO, still, I think we needed a firebrand--and an experienced one at that--to be running the country right now, and Obama is not a firebrand. Who should have won? I don't think there is really anyone who was in the race that would have filled that role now, which is a testimony of how weak our power is. Perhaps it should have been Dr. Dean, but I think we need to rethink the whole mess in 2012, providing we a) live that long, b) still have our Bill of Rights and c) are able to have an open and free election. I'd like, at this time, to see Alan Grayson run for the Presidency. There has been absolutely no politician like him, and I say that in a good sense. Everyone else on our side (with only a couple of exceptions) is spineless and weak, and gives in too goddamned much. We're going to lose an awful lot of Dems this year, and it's our own fault for being gutless and accommodating to the nth degree.