Obama's Cronkite Moment?

Townhall.com ^ | August 31, 2010 | Cal Thomas

[Kaslin]

President Obama may have experienced his Walter Cronkite moment over the economy.

Responding to Cronkite's reporting from Vietnam four decades ago that the only way to end the war was by negotiating with the North Vietnamese, President Lyndon Johnson was reported (though never confirmed) to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

Now President Obama appears to have "lost" New York Times liberal economic columnist Paul Krugman. Krugman, who enthusiastically supported the president's redistributionist and stimulus plans, has bowed to the reality that they are not working. In a recent column titled "This is Not a Recovery," Krugman took issue with the president and Vice President Joe Biden that we have experienced a summer of economic recovery. "Unfortunately, that's not true," he wrote. "This isn't a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policymakers should be doing everything they can to change that fact."

Krugman asked an essential question: "Why are people who know better sugarcoating economic reality? The answer, I'm sorry to say, is that it's all about evading responsibility."

It is that, and more. The administration is so locked into its left-wing, "tax, borrow and spend" ideology that it has become like someone trapped in a cult: unable to escape and endlessly repeating the same mantra.

In a speech last week to central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged the economy is fragile, especially in light of the government's latest report, which showed the weakest quarterly growth in a year. He added that high unemployment poses a serious threat. Still, Bernanke tried to sound optimistic by forecasting some pickup in growth in 2011 and beyond.

Optimism not based on reality is false hope based on wishful thinking. One might as well ask a high-performance engine to run at peak level after several of its cylinders have been disabled. It is impossible, no matter how shiny the paint job.

An economy burdened down with debt because of too much government spending, a health care law that will add new and unknown burdens, expiring tax cuts that will take more money from the private sector for government to waste and abuse, and a stock market unsure and thus unable to fuel the economic engine to propel us out of this recession, is not a "summer of recovery," but a winter of discontent.

The solution is not a "Star Trek" approach in which we must go where no one has gone before. We know what works and what must be done. Social Security and Medicare must be reformed; government programs that have failed, or are obsolete, should be scrapped; military spending designed to enhance re-election prospects for some members of Congress, while doing nothing to improve the military, must be ended, and people should be asked to return to the attitude of previous generations that all of us, including government, must live within our means.

Writing in U.S. News & World Report, publisher Mort Zuckerman takes the Krugman view a step further by calling the administration he once supported "The Most Fiscally Irresponsible Government in U.S. History."

Zuckerman writes: "People see the stimulus, fashioned and passed by Congress in such a hurry, as a metaphor for wasted money. They are highly critical about the lack of discipline among our political leaders. The question that naturally arises is how to forestall a long-term economic decline."

The answer is for the Republicans, so eager and so likely to regain power in the House and possibly the Senate in the coming election, to expose the administration's sugarcoating of reality and get out the bad-tasting medicine. The good news is that by swallowing fiscal responsibility, we will all be better off in the end. But can Republicans withstand and prevail over the Democratic demagoguery that will predictably be heaped on them? They'd better, or they don't deserve to lead.

As Walter Cronkite used to say, "That's the way it is."

[South40]

Krugman is like Dan Rather minus the credibility.

[kittymyrib]

Insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Will the Leftists finally give up on Keynesian economics that has driven the country into the ditch every time it’s been tried? I doubt it.

[grobdriver]

Now President Obama appears to have "lost" New York Times liberal economic columnist Paul Krugman

He doesn't care!
People are judging this guy based on how a normal politician behaves. They usually want to get reelected.
Obarry wants to destroy America.
I think at this point he knows he won't be reelected, so he's just out to do as much damage as he can before he's shown the door.

[albie]

The kenyan imposter has not lost Krugman. Krugman is simply trying to give his little Marxist buddy a hand. Progressives don’t ever give in. Nor do they change their stripes.

[glorgau]

If you’ve lost Krugman, you’ve lost the Upper East Side.

How droll.

[libs_kma]

"Krugman asked an essential question: "Why are people who know better sugarcoating economic reality? The answer, I'm sorry to say, is that it's all about evading responsibility."

Gee, I don't know Krugman, maybe because you spineless, terrorist loving pieces of @#$% have carried his water for so long?

In addition to evading responsibility of course. That goes without saying.

[SonOfDarkSkies]

Add to the problem of a sluggish economy the fact that the government swilled Dom Pérignon in an effort to stimulate it and here is what you are left with...

The recession was bad enough before Obama's retrograde policies...but now we not only have a bad economy, we have a mountain of NEW debt.

[muir_redwoods]

If this is a recovery what the hell does a relapse feel like?

[libs_kma]

"The kenyan imposter has not lost Krugman. Krugman is simply trying to give his little Marxist buddy a hand. Progressives don’t ever give in. Nor do they change their stripes."

I agree. If anything, Krugman is seeing the writing on the wall and willing Obama to make some progress here, so he can then continue destroying the country the way Krugman wants him to.

[South40]

[CitizenM]

Obama has not lost Krugman. In that article referred to above Krugman continually bashes Republicans, while offering suggestions to Obama. For example, Krugman states:

So officials could, with considerable justification, place the onus for the non-recovery on Republican obstructionism. But they’ve chosen, instead, to draw smiley faces on a grim picture, convincing nobody. And the likely result in November — big gains for the obstructionists — will paralyze policy for years to come.

Krugman is just playing "Papa" with Obama and admonishing him a bit. But he still loves the kid.

[jersey117]

Hey, the baby boomer libs have portfolios too.

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Krugman, like every NYT’s Ivy Leaguer, won’t let objective data get in the way of their beliefs. You are dealing with a religion, not a political party. Do you think Crusaders had any problems with looting, raping, and murdering when they were told they doing so with Christ’s blessing? Its the same thing here.

[circlecity]

But Krugman’s complaints are that Obama hasn’t taxed and spent ENOUGH! He hasn’t lost Krugman, because Krugman wants him to do exactly what he’s been doing but X 10.

[tlb]

As best I recall Krugman’s prior stances he has been 100% consistent. Spend more. For months he has exasperatedly been sniping at Obama’s failure of nerve and leadership in refusing to follow Krugman’s advice to go all in.

[SonOfDarkSkies]

What's funny about the Obama administration is that it has proved to America that a regular guy or gal on the street in small town USA is smarter than a whole bunch of Harvard trained economists.

Case in point...I was chatting with a retired high school teacher last week and I asked him what he thought would be the most effective stimulus program for this economy. He said any money spent by the government should be invested in the most productive elements of the economy. When asked how that might be accomplished he said (to paraphrase) "I guess you could just refund capital to those who paid the most taxes."

[shove_it]

Krugman’s criticism of the stimulus is that it was too small.

[Buckeye McFrog]

if Obama’s primary concern at this point is what Krugman thinks, we are in far, far worse trouble than even I think we are

[dps.inspect]

By Gud! Watson, I think you’ve got it...