Curbing Your Enthusiasm (Paul Krugman's enthusiasm for HopeNChange has been Curbed)

New York Times ^ | 07/30/2010 | Paul Krugman, Honorable Nobel Laureate /s

[SeekAndFind]

Why does the Obama administration keep looking for love in all the wrong places? Why does it go out of its way to alienate its friends, while wooing people who will never waver in their hatred?

These questions were inspired by the ongoing suspense over whether President Obama will do the obviously right thing and nominate Elizabeth Warren to lead the new consumer financial protection agency. But the Warren affair is only the latest chapter in an ongoing saga.

Mr. Obama rode into office on a vast wave of progressive enthusiasm. This enthusiasm was bound to be followed by disappointment, and not just because the president was always more centrist and conventional than his fervent supporters imagined. Given the facts of politics, and above all the difficulty of getting anything done in the face of lock step Republican opposition, he wasn’t going to be the transformational figure some envisioned.

Mr. Obama has delivered in important ways. Above all, he managed (with lots of help from Nancy Pelosi) to enact a health reform that, imperfect as it is, will greatly improve Americans’ lives — unless a Republican Congress manages to sabotage its implementation.

But progressive disillusionment isn’t just a matter of sky-high expectations meeting prosaic reality. Threatened filibusters didn’t force Mr. Obama to waffle on torture; to escalate in Afghanistan; to choose, with exquisitely bad timing, to loosen the rules on offshore drilling early this year.

Then there are the appointments. Yes, the administration needed experienced hands. But did all the senior members of the economics team have to be protégés of Robert Rubin, the apostle of financial deregulation? Was it necessary to install Ken Salazar at the Interior Department over the objections of environmentalists who feared, rightly, that his ties to extractive industries would make him slow to clean up

[agere_contra]

Weapons-grade self-deluding twaddle.

Thanks for posting!

[Southack]

"Given the facts of politics, and above all the difficulty of getting anything done in the face of lock step Republican opposition..."

Tsk...tsk...the Nobel laurate lies, pretending that he can rewrite history by ignoring the Democratic Party super-majority in the Senate for 0bama's entire first year in Office (out of 18 months in Office to date!).

[moodyskeptic]

Sorry, but I have NO compassion for idiots who bought the obvious campaign BS of Obama and who now have second thoughts. These fools will ruin our nation, and they have displayed unbearably shallow political insight, they should not be allowed to vote ever again. That goes double for over-educated media elites like this fool. Buyers Remorse? Too little, too late!

[library user]

One of these is a pussy. Can you tell which one?

[demsux]

Krugman...esteemed member of “JournOlist”.

[FrankR]

"Why does the Obama administration keep looking for love in all the wrong places? Why does it go out of its way to alienate its friends, while wooing people who will never waver in their hatred? "

Because:
"Water seeks it's own level"
"Birds of a feather..."
"Everyone reaches their own level of incompetence"

etc

[MrB]

Ah, so now they’re “progressives” again, are they?

Wilson era “progressives” dropped the label when people began to attach the reality of FASCISM to the label.
They became “liberals”. Still FASCISTS, but called something different.

I guess it’s time to hide who they are again.

[dominic flandry]

I’m going to wager $50.00 that it is the one in the blue shirt.

[MontanaBeth]

He sniffs glue, no other explanation for this fantasy piece.

[Malesherbes]

Krugman got his Nobel Prize for demonstrating with arithmetic that countries that are close to each other tend to trade with each other. What will this genius think of next?

[griswold3]

Ignorance is the best friend of the ‘progressives’.