Krugman: Obama an "Appeaser", Easily "Rolled" by Far Right

[MannyGoldstein]

Paul Krugman gives a voice to us "left-of-the-left" Democrats in http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/opinion/21krugman.html">today's column:

According to news reports, the Obama administration — which seemed, over the weekend, to be backing away from the “public option” for health insurance — is shocked and surprised at the furious reaction from progressives.

Well, I’m shocked and surprised at their shock and surprise.

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I don’t know if administration officials realize just how much damage they’ve done themselves with their kid-gloves treatment of the financial industry, just how badly the spectacle of government supported institutions paying giant bonuses is playing. But I’ve had many conversations with people who voted for Mr. Obama, yet dismiss the stimulus as a total waste of money. When I press them, it turns out that they’re really angry about the bailouts rather than the stimulus — but that’s a distinction lost on most voters.

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But there’s a point at which realism shades over into weakness, and progressives increasingly feel that the administration is on the wrong side of that line. It seems as if there is nothing Republicans can do that will draw an administration rebuke: Senator Charles E. Grassley feeds the death panel smear, warning that reform will “pull the plug on grandma,” and two days later the White House declares that it’s still committed to working with him.

[Tansy_Gold]

1. This has been clear since mid-November '08

when Obama began putting his "team" together.

Glad to K&R



TG

[tj2001]

4. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

whoever in the White House doesn't see a serious problem here ought to get fired.

[burning rain]

19. The administration is too much about triangulation.

It doesn't work well when your party has the majority in Congress.

[ima_sinnic]

2. why is this so obvious to everyone EXCEPT Obama?

does he perceive how it weakens him to be an appeaser?

[tj2001]

3. The way things were going, Repugs were about to define "bipartisanship" as

Obama apologizing for winning the election.

[TankLV]

12. amazing, isn't it!!! and all the fucking apologists here will decend in 3,2,1...

[ShortnFiery]

5. Krugman may have a point although he's way too detached and academic.

There's a sick-minded republican on C-SPAN who, despite all of Obama's outreach ot them, she says that he has done NOTHING FOR CONSERVATIVES ... that he treats them like little children.

No way! Bush dismissed us LIBERALS out of the gate. Now Obama considers us "a minority group" who seemingly needs to be treated like petulant children.

I'm disgusted. We've been treated like shit during the Bush Administration and now Obama's Administration tells us to "shut up and appease more conservatives" both Republican and Democratic.

I'm sick of appeasing conservatives. This country is NOT conservative. If anything it's CORPORATE.

Obama needs to determine if he's for The Average Wage Slave American OR if he's for the large Corporations. Continuing to FAVOR "corporatism" under a "respect the conservatives" (above all else?!?) theme is a ruse and an insult to our intelligence.

I'm a liberal, but these issues are not Left vs. Right but The People vs. The Corporations.

FOLLOW THE MONEY!

[MzNov]

17. That's exactly why we need Krugman, because he is detached and academic

He's on the outside looking in, and doing a heckofajob hitting the nail on the head.

Obama has a very curious disdain for the "left". As he said yesterday, the Left got "a little excited" about the confusion and mixed messages coming from the Administration on health care.

Well hell yeah. Somebody needs to get excited. Except I thought it was a very condescending remark.

[Walk away]

6. Independents are the real problem. If the White House fails...

to pass a real HCR bill (with a public option) even the republicans are going to paint him as a weak failure. How could the "Left" not understand that it's about winning in this country.

[ShortnFiery]

7. Again, this is NOT left vs. right.

It's all for that mean grean.

[peace frog]

8. When you try to please everybody

(at the risk of displeasing your strongest supporters) you end up pleasing nobody. Obama should have learned this lesson in kindergarten like the rest of us did.
All I can do is continue to ask: WTF????

[whathehell]

9. True...Everyone's shaking their heads asking

:wtf:

It's becoming a major point of frustration.

[elias7]

10. Patience, folks

It's only the second inning...

[tj2001]

11. Playing Gandhi to Repugs is not a strategy

[BeGoodDoGood]

13. That's not true!

It's not a winning strategy.

[katkat]

14. patience, all used up

Who said Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

Krugman nails it to the wall.

I can only hope Obama has enough brains to read that column and understand that it's the truth. For a bright guy, he is acting like a real moron.

[lark]

20. I think it's later

like probably around the 7th inning stretch right now. The game can still be won, but the chances are getting slimmer and slimmer for any real reform. The corporatist are still in charge, just with nicer packaging and not as hateful.

[digidigido]

29. Dude, I hate to tell you but it's the top of the 7th

[Doctor_J]

15. Say it, Brother Nobel!

All of this "chess playing" has had the effect of wingers waving guns at town halls, while the WH tries to make nice with them. You don't try to appease rabid dogs and terrorists. You kill them noisily and convincingly. Stop rolling over for the terrorists

[groovedaddy]

16. While supporting Obama, the questions in my mind have always been:

How "DLC" is he?
How much is he willing to really shake things up?
In the hopes of re-election, how far back to the center will he be pulled (or, for that matter, how from the center did he ever go?).
Does he realize that the center today is to the right of Nixon?

[Jakes Progress]

18. The usual group of DU'ers who like to pound on Krugman

can keep on if they want. But if the WH doesn't start listening to the kind of advice he is giving, this will be a rocky, one-term presidency. That is bad for Democrats, bad for the significance of electing a black president, and bad for the country.

If Obama is the one calling the shots for the administration, he needs to figure out who is more in touch with his supporters - people like Krugman who are just trying to help Obama do a good job or people like the advisers who keep after him to make friends with the neocons.

Daily, even some of the biggest fan-based supporters are losing their enthusiasm. He is going to need every single one of the left to show up again, just as doggedly as they did in November, when he runs again next time. We can't count on the republicans to run a cranky old fart and an inbred hick again next time.

[lark]

21. Drat

I was counting on the inbred hick to run again. Wonder if the Repugs are dumb enough to have her as the front person?

[MasonJar]

22. Thank you again, Mr. Krugman, for telling it like it is with such clarity.

I definitely feel like I have been punked. I will never give Obama another dime or a minute of my time. Not that he cares with all those corporate dollars he's amassing.

[troubledamerican]

23. The Post-Obama Wasteland -- Sarah rushes in

and the rabid zombie fascist horde -- here they come -- are you ready?

[Vidar]

24. Krugman's right again.

[MissDeeds]

25. K & R

This is not a winning strategy. The voters wanted change, not pandering.

[Yuugal]

26. K&R nt

[democracy1st]

27. No fight whatsoever in this WH ..

[Grinchie]

28. I'm voting for Kucinich

This pile of DLC Dog Turds can go lick their balls.

How DLC is Obama? DLC enought to hire Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Rahm Emmanual. He's DLC enough to appoint Vilsack to Agriculture. He's DLC enough to appoint Michael Taylor (again) , the guy who brought us "Substantial Equivalence" which opened the door to inadequately tested GMO food being secretly fed to us in just about every processed food. Never mind that he is one of more successful Monsanto Lobbiest/Pro-Monsanto Law crafter.

Now we see complete chaos in the Government. Laws ignored, nobody held accountable for Trillions of dollars in Theft, false intelligence, domestic spying, ad nauseum.

Kind of hard to move forward when you have the legacy of Dubya clamped onto your ass like a bear trap.

But it's great for the Corporations! They can still confuse the shit out of the public because they are in shock at how rapidly Obama devoloved into just another sell out.