Posted on 11/07/2008 8:29:20 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, is a date that will live in fame (the opposite of infamy) forever. If the election of our first African-American president didn’t stir you, if it didn’t leave you teary-eyed and proud of your country, there’s something wrong with you.
But will the election also mark a turning point in the actual substance of policy? Can Barack Obama really usher in a new era of progressive policies? Yes, he can.
Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative country, and voters will punish Democrats if they move to the left. Others say that the financial and economic crisis leaves no room for action on, say, health care reform.
Let’s hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.
About the political argument: Anyone who doubts that we’ve had a major political realignment should look at what’s happened to Congress. After the 2004 election, there were many declarations that we’d entered a long-term, perhaps permanent era of Republican dominance. Since then, Democrats have won back-to-back victories, picking up at least 12 Senate seats and more than 50 House seats. They now have bigger majorities in both houses than the G.O.P. ever achieved in its 12-year reign.
Bear in mind, also, that this year’s presidential election was a clear referendum on political philosophies — and the progressive philosophy won.
This year, however, Mr. Obama ran on a platform of guaranteed health care and tax breaks for the middle class, paid for with higher taxes on the affluent. John McCain denounced his opponent as a socialist and a “redistributor,” but America voted for him anyway. That’s a real mandate.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
screw you, Krugman.
hey krugman-how ‘bout we start with yours.
This guy is such a fraud. The fact that he won a nobel in economics just reinforces how worthless the prize is after Arafat and Gore won it.
Oh, it left me teary-eyed alright, but not because I'm a self-loathing moron who would vote for the first black candidate placed before me regardless of his lack of qualifications.
Couldn't get much further than that in this piece (of shite).
The Nobel Prize in economics is TOTALLY INCONSISTENT. On the one hand, it would give free marketers like Hayek and Friedman the prize, on the other hand it would award it to socialists like Krugman and maybe even Amatrya Sen.
I bet the New York Times wants some government pie to keep them from going under.
The election left me teary-eyed, but not the way Krugman is getting at.
I guess there's something wrong with me. I can live with that.
I for one, hope he follows this advice so we can get back in there sooner.
Right off the bat, I fully admit that there is something wrong with me. The fact that a person who is 1/7 black got elected to the presidency does not make me proud. I don't care what color a person is, but I do care about their morals, judgement, and experience--none of which o seems to have.
What happened, happened, and we'll somehow get through these next 4 years--but I'll never be proud of it!
someone needs to tell this arcehole that conservatives judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
Is Krugman part of Obama’s economic advisory team?
I thought I read that somewhere. Maybe not.
Please let me know what Country I'm living in. I could have sworn I was born in the United States of America, but I could be wrong.
BTW - I want a piece of that Nobel money Krugman got.
I deserve it more than he does.
I’m just curious — where did you get the 1/7 black thing? I thought Obama was half-black, half-white? (White mom; Dad from Kenya)?
There is something wrong with me, according to Krugman. I don’t judge or evaluate by skin color but by character and accomplishments, and Obama fails both categories miserably. I was greatly disappointed by his election, but teary? No, just disgusted.
Sorry Krudman, I'm not proud of my countrymen who voted in a marxist hell bent on destroying the nation as we knew it to usher in a Marxist dictatorship.
Teary eyed, yes, but for the loss of the nation, the giving up of our freedom so many fought and died for in it's defense.
"Let’s hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.
Oh I agree, lets hope. The sooner people are jolted back to their senses the better. Go Obama Go! drive the nation into the darkest deepest depression it has ever seen.
All those who were expecting the Messiah to fill their gas tanks and pay their mortgages will be bitterly disappointed.
Bush served three terms?
Krudman can count just as good as Obama.
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