KRUGMAN: from outside, White House looks like it's in complete moral collapse

[yurbud]

It is impossible to disagree with Krugman.

There are really only two explanations for Obama's reflexive capitulation even when he's got the upper hand:

1. He is DLC to the bone and agrees with the GOP on most of what they want to do, which is why he surrendered and pre-compromised even when he could have used the bully pulpit to bully DLCers, Blue Dogs, and moderate Republicans to vote for more progressive legislation than they otherwise would have because the people in their state and district would be demanding it instead of scratching their heads trying to figure out if Obama's Rube Goldberg half-measures will actually help them or were even meant to.
   
   
2. Comedian Bill Hicks was right when he said when you're elected President, a bunch of rich guys show you a film of the JFK assassination from an angle no one has seen before, and ask him, ''Any questions?''

If you think the latter is conspiracy theory nonsense, consider one of the Wikileaks revelations of State Department personnel being asked to collect personal information, credit card numbers, PIN numbers, etc. on foreign diplomats. Why would they want that information except to find an exploitable weakness?

Or consider the non-stop harassment of Bill Clinton about his sex life, drumming Howard Dean out of the presidential race over a cheer gone wrong, and now the censure of Charlie Rangel for ethical sins that are nickel and dime compared to what the Bush administration did for eight years or for that matter, most elected officials did in deregulating finance, outsourcing our industrial base with trade deals like NAFTA, doing the bidding of insurance, oil companies, and hedge funds, then going to work for them when they leave office and reaping millions in reward for their public service to the financial elite.

Or consider the envelopes sent to Tom Daschle and Pat Leahy with loaded with anthrax that could only be made by our military.

To get to the top in politics, you have to be bought or blackmailed into submission to the very wealthy, who will not leave their fates and fortunes to a mere democracy of housewives, mechanics, and janitors. In other words, the people whose lives and dreams they feel free to take and destroy as their birthright.

Freezing Out Hope
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 2, 2010

It’s hard to escape the impression that Republicans have taken Mr. Obama’s measure — that they’re calling his bluff in the belief that he can be counted on to fold. And it’s also hard to escape the impression that they’re right.

The real question is what Mr. Obama and his inner circle are thinking. Do they really believe, after all this time, that gestures of appeasement to the G.O.P. will elicit a good-faith response?

What’s even more puzzling is the apparent indifference of the Obama team to the effect of such gestures on their supporters. One would have expected a candidate who rode the enthusiasm of activists to an upset victory in the Democratic primary to realize that this enthusiasm was an important asset. Instead, however, Mr. Obama almost seems as if he’s trying, systematically, to disappoint his once-fervent supporters, to convince the people who put him where he is that they made an embarrassing mistake.

Whatever is going on inside the White House, from the outside it looks like moral collapse — a complete failure of purpose and loss of direction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/opinion/03krugman.html

[Goldstein1984]

1. I think Obama was just in over his head from the start

This president is an example of the Peter Principle--He's been promoted to the level of his incompetence.

[ladjf]

8. I think the President is a dumb coward. And I think this post will

be deleted within minutes.

[yurbud]

10. 27 minutes and counting...

[hay rick]

18. I don't think he's dumb.

[yurbud]

15. I don't. The incompetence argument was trotted out for Bush about 9/11, Iraq intel, and a couple of

other issues, but Bush was good at getting most of what he wanted to get done done. In Bush's case, he had to bully the Democrats out of the way to do it.

Obama has only the less enviable way of serving the wealthy: by constantly appearing to be bullied.

[dennis4868]

17. Bush...

Did not have to deal with an opposition party that said NO to everything and fillubuster every ficking piece if legislation...,this is VERY different than what Obama faces every day! Get it?

[yurbud]

21. Republicans are using the rules to their advantage and Democrats aren't even trying nor

did they under Bush.

But you know that.

It's funny that DLCers and their apologists have no problem talking tough to progressives, but get down on their knees to blow republicans before they even ask.

Do you think that has anything to do with why they had their asses handed to them in the last election?

[Danascot]

26. and everything to do

with why we'll have our asses handed to us in the next election. What fun the years after that will be when even more rabid right-wingers than the Bush crowd will be in control of the presidency, the congress and the courts.

Even if none of our leaders has any ethics or principles, don't we at least have any political strategists left?

[yurbud]

27. the only strategists they listen to are like Rahm who are only interested in collecting

Corporate money and trust.

[pscot]

29. FYI

I believe the black community, including those who hang out here, regard that as racist code for a couple of words that begin with a d- and an n-. We need to learn to deal with this in ways that don't tear us apart completely. There is a lot of phony PC around here, but racial insensetivity is live ammunition. It can hurt people and do a lot of collateral damage

[txlibdem]

30. I don't think they meant it that way at all

The Peter Principle is a well-known management problem where you get into an organization, get recognized for your competence and good works, get promoted over and over, until the very last promotion puts you into a position that you are not competent to serve in. That is neither a racial or an anti-Hawaiian or anti-whatever comment. I, too, believe that there are only two possible answers for why Pres. Obama is disappointing the base at every turn. 1.) He is truly clueless about how to "work the system" and get stuff done, arm twisting, knowing when to be forceful and when not to, etc., or 2.) He believes, in his heart and deepest core, that Republican ideas are the correct ones for this country, that Trickle Down is the only way our economy can work, that bailouts for the rich and the corporations are needed but no bailouts for the middle class is contemplated or needed.

He is either lacking in experience or he is a traitor to the Democratic Party. Can you think of any other reason for his actions to date?

[jaxx]

2. Krugman does not know what the hell he's whining about.

What he is doing is bashing the President continually with his for profit column. If you're disappointed Mr. Krugman try taking your moral collapse and putting it where the sun don't shine.

[yurbud]

14. thanks for at least paraphrasing the ''professional left'' talking point. Do you have a substantive

argument with the Krugman column?

Even with the usual list of accomplishments of Obama trotted out, don't appearances count for an awful lot in politics?

Bill Clinton staring down Newt Gingrich when he shut down the government over the budget won my respect and trust even though Clinton didn't deserve it because of NAFTA, finance deregulation, the telecomm act, and any number of ways he capitulated to the right: but Bubba understood he had to put on the show and it worked. Likewise, not breaking no matter how the GOP tried to look at his dick for nearly a decade also won my respect. Obama seems afraid to even risk that kind of attack though he's getting it and will get it even worse no matter how much he surrenders to the right.

[BlueMTexpat]

23. +1000! nt

[Jakes Progress]

19. Wow. Such erudition and command of issues.

Krugman really got to you this time. Try just not reading him anymore. Must be really frustrating to feel necessary to respond to something and have nothing that can dispute what was said. Better just to let it go. There are lots of happy, happy threads that will make you feel better.

[glitch]

3. I think it's option 1, option 2 isn't required because no one needing it is ever allowed

to win the election.

Although they may still present it, out of gleeful spite. That's just how they appear to roll.

[yurbud]

13. I think your last sentence nailed it: Obama didn't need it, but they did it anyway

which explains the whipped dog act even when he had wide margins in Congress. He could have put on a good show and delivered the same results, but he didn't even try.

It borders on a plea for help to the public: I want to be president, but they've got a gun to my head.

[jwirr]

4. Option 2 is always at the back of my mind. He has a family and it

would be easy to threaten him with them. I am not saying this is happening but he was at one time getting 400 death threats a month. Who knows?

[yurbud]

11. I hadn't thought of the 400 threats a month, but it probably makes a difference who the threat comes

from.

There was a scene in the Sopranos where a wiseguy visits a juror on Uncle Junior's case. The juror knows who the wiseguy is and the wiseguy makes a lot of comments that aren't quite threats but that show he knows everything about the guy and could give the juror or someone in his family a real bad day.

I could see Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, or a couple of other top flunkies of the rich delivering a similar message.

[Stringertom]

5. Shocked & Outraged ?

What do spelunkers and Obama have in common? Their favorite activity is "caving". Obama's '12 campaign slogan: Caving since 1/20/09. How else can you explain all failed promises: Gitmo closing, war crimes investigations, public option healthcare. I pledged $$ and worked phones for the phony in '08. Somebody tell me how I can help get REAL change now. Vote for First Dude on next season's DWTS? I want a one-term Obama more than Ole McConnell does. The phrase growing up was the class idiot could mess up a wet dream. 44 qualifies coz he took 53% margin, giant Congressional majorities and a massive energy level and threw it all away in 24 months. Now he's acting out Wag the Dog: the Sequel in Afghanistan while we need him to stand up and call all GOP bluffs. Grow a pair or borrow Hillary's spare set!

[yurbud]

12. with Hillary, only the tone would be different, not the result

a little more combative, but ultimately, we'd get DLC Republican lite instead of the fundamental change needed.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Thank you, Paul Krugman.

I definitely feel like a housewife whose life has been altered by the reckless rich, or those who are trying to coddle them.

[Jim__]

7. Yup. I've lost all hope for any good changes coming out of this White House.

This administration has been one serious disappointment.

[bemildred]

9. I think it's more like cognitive disconnect, or "does not compute" or something. nt

[NorthCarolina]

16. I say that Obama being hard core DLC to the bone is pretty much a given. nt

[Jakes Progress]

20. I think I see more and more people for whom

the last line of Krugman's commentary is so sadly true.

[Jakes Progress]

22. There's the third explanation.

One of Tom Tomorrow's cartoons postulated that bush and cheney were wild-eyed liberals who decided to pretend to be conservatives and run the country so badly that republicans would never rule again. Then they are dumbfounded at the over and over capitulation of the Obama administration. Then a panel reveals that Obama is a secret neo-con who runs for office as a liberal and plans to do the same thing the "liberal bush" did. I looked for it but couldn't locate it.

(Yeah. I had to put "liberal bush" in quotes. Those words just don't work together.)

[bemildred]

25. Whoa. To close to the truth.

They are sure more wrapped up in their own little power game than running the country.
:thumbsup:

[txlibdem]

31. I wish I could have seen that, what a laugh!

More likely is that Bush/Cheney were arch criminals but such bumbling fools at it that they kept falling over their own feet. And THEN neo-con Obama lies his way into the oval office to finish the job the Bushies started: the destruction of the middle class, the fascist takeover of America (if it hasn't already happened I don't feel middle anymore, I feel pretty darn poor).

[BlueMTexpat]

24. It would be so nice to wake up in the morning and read or see

how Obama is actually paying attention to his base, instead of those who wish to obstruct him at all costs.
Just once - on just ONE big thing - like not extending Bush tax cuts to the wealthy. If he could do it just once, he might possibly muster enough spine to try again.

[yurbud]

28. Bill Clinton understood and did this with Newt's government shutdown standoff and with the

Impeachment nonsense.

He essentially capitulated on everything else but it was enough to create the appearance of antagonism and opposition to the GOP agenda.

[BlueMTexpat]

34. As I understand it, it was during the shutdown that the "affair"

with Monica began - Clinton was at a truly low point in his political career and he had lost his mother, with whom he was very close, earlier that year. That's no excuse for his behavior of course, especially since the GOP exploited that behavior to the utmost to "impeach" him later on. But lying about consensual extramarital sex is certainly not what is meant by "high crimes or misdemeanors." As we have since seen, it appears to trump war crimes, sadly.
But what most disappoints me about both Clinton and, especially with Obama, is that there were and have been so many squandered opportunities to improve life for the American people as a whole. These opportunities are unlikely to come again, now that the RW is digging in so deeply - not, at least, without a major adjustment in course by the Dems - or even a revolution on a national scale.
Unfortunately, I don't see either happening, at least not in my lifetime.

[yurbud]

36. I see something like a revolution coming if DC succeeds in kicking us further down the stairs

to a Third World standard of living.

[DeSwiss]

32. Excellent summations. I concur. n/t

[Hawkowl]

33. The outside view is the one that matters

If it appears that the White House is undergoing a complete failure of purpose and moral collapse, then it is. Obama will not be re-elected whether he runs or not--whether he is primaried or not. Weaklings do not get elected in times of war and economic chaos.

[txlibdem]

35. +1 Well said!

right on the money...

[bertman]

37. Too late to rec. Right on the money, yurbud!! nt