If you've overheard Fox News at all in the past year, it's likely that you've been treated to kvetching about Obama putting too much blame on Bush, and that he ought to live in the present, etc. etc. (a rhetoric notoriously absent when Bush said similar things about Clinton). However, Krugman disagrees(emphasis mine):
The Obama administration’s troubles are the result not of excessive ambition, but of policy and political misjudgments. The stimulus was too small; policy toward the banks wasn’t tough enough; and Mr. Obama didn’t do what Ronald Reagan, who also faced a poor economy early in his administration, did — namely, shelter himself from criticism with a narrative that placed the blame on previous administrations.
And because it tickles me in relation to my previous post about the WSJ, here's another good Krugman quote:
It’s often forgotten now, but unemployment actually soared after Reagan’s 1981 tax cut. Reagan, however, had a ready answer for critics: everything going wrong was the result of the failed policies of the past. In effect, Reagan spent his first few years in office continuing to run against Jimmy Carter.
I simultaneously agree and disagree with the rest of Krugman's sentiments. On the one hand, he talks about how Obama hasn't really accomplished that much, and how he needs to focus on two remaining options: pushing financial and health care reform. He's right; these are things that must happen. Krugman says that "not passing a bill would surely be [Democrats'] political doom." And he's right.
On the other hand, Dave's had two different posts detailing Obama's accomplishments and effectiveness. Let's not be giving aid and comfort to the enemy now. Make sure the Republicans know that we still want the same things we wanted when we overwhelmingly elected President Obama, and that we're still willing to back him and fight for what Krugman himself calls "the right thing to do."
One of the key strengths of the Party of No is their ability to remain unified while preying on the fractiousness of the left. It's like the Democrats are constantly trying to prevent a big game of rock paper scissors Hippies who hate pollution protest the Union workers who are against Immigrants taking their jobs who are against the Supporters of Gay Marriage and so on down the line (this is obviously not an accurate representation, but you get the point).
What we have to realize is what the right realized long ago: we are stronger than the sum of our parts. Every election they win is a representation of this. Most polls in the past few years put the amount of left-leaning Americans anywhere from five to twenty-five percent above the amount of right-leaning Americans. We have the power, and we need to remember that. It was proven a year ago when we chose Hope and Change over those who sought to continue the downward spiral of the Bush years. Compromising and taking the good with the bad is always better than refusing to accept anything but 100% goodness. Obama knows this well.
