Obama ditched a key campaign promise. And it saved his presidency.
During the 2008 campaign, Paul Krugman was one of Barack Obama's most relentless critics. Relations between the campaign and the economist got so bad that Team Obama actually dropped an oppo document on Krugman. (https://web.archive.org/web/20080214002022/http://www.barackobama.com/factcheck/2007/12/07/fact_check_krugman_didnt_alway.php)
After Obama's election, Krugman became something of a liberal frenemy to the administration: he was a much-sought ally, and a much-feared critic. Krugman's criticisms burned because the White House often agreed with them — they also wanted a larger stimulus, and a better health-care bill; they just thought the New York Times economist didn't appreciate the electric fence of political reality.
Which did not help.
Krugman became something a liberal frenemy to the administration
Krugman, for his part, thought the administration too fearful of the Very Serious People and too optimistic about the right. It's a criticism he partially resurrects in a new Rolling Stone piece. "Obama was indeed naive," Krugman writes. "He faced scorched-earth Republican opposition from Day One, and it took him years to start dealing with that opposition realistically."
Krugman: Obama a historic success
Even so, Krugman says, "Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history. His health reform is imperfect but still a huge step forward - and it's working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it's much more effective than you'd think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy."
Hate Obama or love him, on this, Krugman is clearly correct. Obama has passed more major legislation than perhaps any president since Lyndon Johnson — and, at least as of yet, there's no Vietnam War to mar his legacy. The history of the Obama administration will be hard to write, as so many of its chapters will demand their own books (indeed, some, like the stimulus, have already gotten them). Most crucially, Obamacare itself looks headed for success — and that, plus preventing the financial crisis from turning into another Great Depression, is a legacy in itself.
That said, Obama's greatest successes — and his most serious failures — lie in the dense mass of his first two years. This is the time, in Krugman's telling, before Obama grokked the nature of the Republican opposition and "began dealing with it realistically." I think the story there is more complicated — and more interesting.
Obama, while seeking the post-partisan presidency he wanted, established the brutally partisan presidency he got
From 2009 to 2010, Obama, while seeking the post-partisan presidency he wanted, established the brutally partisan presidency he got. Virtually every achievement Krugman recounts — the health-care law, the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, the financial rescue, the stimulus bill — passed in these first two years when Democrats held huge majorities in congress. And every item on the list passed over screaming Republican opposition. The first two years of the Obama administration are the story of Obama being haunted by his promises of a postpartisan presidency, and choosing, again and again, to pass bills at the cost of worsening partisanship.
The irony of Obama's presidency
More here: http://www.vox.com/2014/10/10/6953889/paul-krugman-obama-historic-success
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