Krugman: ‘Who Cares What Centrists Think,’ Obama’s Having A Great Year

Economy Nobel winner, Paul Krugman, participates in a debate on expenditures and investments for the economy growth, promoted by Exame magazine, at Unique hotel, in southern Sao Paulo, Brazil, on September 14, 2012.
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman attempted to puncture a prevailing media narrative on Monday, arguing that — contrary to what Beltway centrists would have you believe — President Obama has actually had a successful 2014.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist highlighted the progress of the Affordable Care Act, financial reform and Obama’s recent new regulations on power plants as evidence that the press and commentariat are wrong when they emphasize the negatives, such as “the contrast between the extravagant hopes of 2008 and the prosaic realities of political trench warfare, the troubles at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the mess in Iraq, and so on.”

Krugman was also dismissive of Obama’s relatively low approval rating, contending that it “mainly reflects political polarization” and shouldn’t be used to judge the President.

The columnist wrote that he suspects the narrative of Obama as a lame-duck stems from what he described as “Simpson-Bowles syndrome,” a belief held by many centrist pundits that a grand fiscal bargain is the “overriding issue of our times.”

“This syndrome persists among many self-proclaimed centrists even though it’s overwhelmingly clear to anyone who has been paying attention that (a) today’s Republicans simply will not compromise with a Democratic president, and (b) the alleged fiscal crisis was vastly overblown,” Krugman wrote, while suggesting that Obama’s pursuit for such a budget deal was “wasted” and “would have moved America in the wrong direction.”

The result of the syndrome’s continuing grip is that Mr. Obama’s big achievements don’t register with much of the Washington establishment: he was supposed to save the budget, not the planet, and somehow he was supposed to bring Republicans along.

But who cares what centrists think? Health reform is a very big deal; if you care about the future, action on climate is a lot more important than raising the retirement age. And if these achievements were made without Republican support, so what?

There are, I suppose, some people who are disappointed that Mr. Obama didn’t manage to make our politics less bitter and polarized. But that was never likely. The real question was whether he (with help from Nancy Pelosi and others) could make real progress on important issues. And the answer, I’m happy to say, is yes, he could.

Conservatives like Commentary editor John Podhoretz responded by mocking Krugman as a delusional Obama cheerleader.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. So the laissez-faire capitalist is using Argentina to mock Paul – what a nincompoop.

  2. The only thing Podhoretz and the other negative, nattering nimrods can point to are Obama’s bad poll numbers and so-called scandals that continue to permeate the right wing echo chamber.

    Taking into account the obstruction of the GOP, what PBO has accomplished is significant and should be acknowledged as a success.

  3. Some context on Norman Podhorhetz taken from a neo-con friendly Amazon introduction to a biography that leaves me wondering:

    “…the Jewish-American intellectual Norman Podhoretz, longtime editor of the influential magazine Commentary… both an editor and a writer…spearheaded the countercultural revolution of the 1960s and - after he “broke ranks” - the neoconservative response. For years he defined what was at stake in the struggle against communism; recently he has nerved America for a new struggle against jihadist Islam; always he has given substance to debates over the function of religion, ethics, and the arts in our society. The turning point of his life occurred, at the age of forty near a farmhouse in upstate New York, in a mystic clarification. It compelled him to “unlearn” much that he had earlier been taught to value, and it also made him enemies. Revealing the private as well as the public man, Thomas L. Jeffers chronicles a heroically coherent life.”

  4. Avatar for darcy darcy says:

    Ah Professor … 1st qtr GDP -1.0..

  5. If you are looking for bad news, shout down the messenger with good news. Koch’s News.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

66 more replies

Participants

Avatar for bobbybob Avatar for ratesanalyst Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for jw1 Avatar for mmurdoch Avatar for bmcchgo Avatar for radicalcentrist Avatar for chammy Avatar for maksutov66 Avatar for arrrrrj Avatar for randyabraham Avatar for sandyh Avatar for noamsane Avatar for mantan Avatar for cpinva Avatar for richardnixonhuberthumphrey Avatar for darcy Avatar for DanMitchell Avatar for lucydee Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for henk Avatar for Libs Avatar for ABCs

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: