Krugman - Obama's Bonerization - For those who think the prez isn't an appeaser

[Doctor_J]

This is a couple days old, but explains very lucidly MY complaint about the president's first 2 years. He was elected to reject and negate Boner's ill-reasoned plans. Instead...

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/the-boehnerization-of-barack-obama/

The Boehnerization of Barack Obama

Why has stimulus become a dirty word? Many reasons, I guess: an inadequate plan combined with a wildly overoptimistic forecast was more or less guaranteed to create the impression of a failed program. But it’s also true that the president himself has had a deeply self-destructive tendency to echo his opponents’ arguments. My original invisible bond vigilantes post was inspired, in part, by Obama’s decision to go on Fox News and declare that we needed to cut the deficit to avoid a double dip. Then, in July, he repeated almost verbatim John Boehner’s justly mocked claim that since the private sector is tightening its belt, the government should do the same.

And he’s done it again:

Nonetheless, Obama said that just as people and companies have had to be cautious about spending, “government should have to tighten its belt as well. We need to do it in an intelligent way. We need to make sure we do things smarter, rather than just lopping something off arbitrarily without having thought it through.”

As I wrote back in July,

We’ll never know how differently the politics would have played if Obama, instead of systematically echoing and giving credibility to all the arguments of the people who want to destroy him, had actually stood up for a different economic philosophy. But we do know how his actual strategy has worked, and it hasn’t been a success.



Comments after the article pretty much spell out the disaster that Obama has wrought by bowing to every failed idea put forth by the psychos who got us into this mess in the first place.

[BootinUp]

1. Democrats with this complaint never listened to him

during the primaries. eom.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. He said he'd cut spending during a depression?

Or that he's appease the Republicans and bankers, while giving the back of his hand to working America?

Got a link?

[BootinUp]

9. First off, I doubt he was ever asked that specific question.

My opinion is based more on understanding his overall political strategy and style. I have seen nothing from Obama that has surprised or shocked me in a bad way. That is not saying I haven't disagreed with things because I have. He is the President he said he would be for all intents and purposes.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. Obama said he'd fight for the middle class

He has not. In spades.

He's actually trying to slash Social Security. Never in my wildest dreams did I understand Obama's campaign rhetoric to include a full-on attack of Working America. But here we are.

[BootinUp]

11. Its all relative, and your charges are based on slim to no evidence

in my opinion. Clearly Obama has fought for more regulation to protect the middle class, he has/is fighting for tax policy that favors the middle class, he also was for stabilizing the financial sector in a very unpopular way, but it did get the job done. The truth is you don't want to allow that his power and influence is limited, or that his methods might yield better long term results. So many politicans have failed to achieve what they said they would, compare Obamas record fairly to all the others before him.

[MannyGoldstein]

12. Did he fight to reinstate Glass-Steagall?

The wealthiest Americans pay about 18% in taxes, due to a low "capital gains" tax. Middle class Americans pay 30%+. Obama only wants to adjust this a bit, not equalize it or (God forbid!) return to progressive taxation that covers the rich.

The banker bailout is likely a postponement allowing the bankers to sock away as much as they can. Do you realize that Obama and the Fed have used our tax dollars to guarantee perhaps $12 trillion in banker junk assets in the hopes that these assets will appreciate and we won't be on the hook? What happens if we have to pay for that?

[Dr.Phool]

15. Me either.

But, I never saw anything there in the first place.

There was no "there" there.

[Doctor_J]

14. I don't recall him saying, "Mr. Boner voted for every single one the policies

that got us into this disaster, and so I am going to make friends with him and do things his way". Can you point me to that campaign stop?

[bvar22]

17. I listened.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-15-2010/respect-my-authoritah

[Doctor_J]

23. Yipes. that was discouraging

:-(

[Lil Missy]

2. He said the same thing prior to being elected. n/t

[stray cat]

3. What ia an appearer and is it better than a blowhard who accomplishes nothing?

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Was FDR a blowhard?

I think FDR was a leader with purpose, vision, and a healthy respect for the truth.

FDR delivered results to a brutalized middle class.

[zipplewrath]

4. Compassionate Triangulation

What Krugman is really getting at is that the presidents efforts at bipartisanship, and reducing the rancor in Washington, basically have morphed into "compassionate triangulation". Just as Bush thought he could somehow be a conservative, but lose the harsh edge of conservativism, Obama thought he could cooperate with the right yet some how be a progressive. The problem is that in the end he started to do Clinton's triangulation, only without the cut throat approach. He tried to marginalize his opposition, without pissing them off. It hasn't worked, and the GOP basically saw it as a weakness.

That said, and I say this as a frequent critic of this administration. If either house of congress goes GOP, I think they may be surprised to find out what an SOB the president can be.

[pokercat999]

13. You may be right as WE have already found out what kind of

SOB the president can be. But I don't think the rethugs fear this weakest of presidents.

[madrchsod]

5. he hired the psychos who got us into this mess

and the next wave has`t hit us yet....

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Ah, the unrec-ers are voracious

But FWIW, I agree with you and Krugman.

[zalinda]

16. What did any one expect?

He lied to the people of Illinois when he told them he would not run for the Presidency in his first term, if they elected him when he was running for the US Senate. He lied. He broke that promise almost from the day he took office. Yes, politicians lie, but this is one promise he could have kept because HE made the decision to run.

zalinda

[democracy1st]

24. Those are lies that every politician make,what we didn't expect was this corp schill in the WH

that doesn't even believe in progressive policys.

[JohnWxy]

18. recommended. Obama has too often lent credence to screw-ball economic theories of right - which are

proposed only to be the opposite of good sense.. and to argue for actions which would weaken any recovery.


Recommended.

[Doctor_J]

20. Credence to all of their nutty "ideas"

Economic and otherwise. I can't for the life of me understand, when the Repukes said out loud on day one, that their goal was to "break him", that he decided to appease them.

Unfortunately for the entire country, he is going to pay for siding with the enemy with impeachment.

[JohnWxy]

21. GOP "burning crops" just like Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia..to cause disruption and mayhem ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x559857

"Khmer Rouge burned the crops in the fields to create havoc and improve their chances of taking over. The GOP are using the exact same tactic of destruction, making our economy and the livelihoods of millions of Americans collateral damage in their war against Obama."

[democracy1st]

25. That among his selection of advisors and the policy approach makes me wonder who is this guy!

[bkozumplik]

19. look at those unrecs

the truth hurts some people I guess. Easier to stay in a dreamworld where you define everything in your own rosy terms, than to look at an unpleasant reality which is dissonant with the construct of reality that you live in.

Reality is a funny thing, isnt it.

+1 for the post. Popular or not.

[democracy1st]

22. K & R