Paul Krugman on Obama: "Self-Inflicted Confusion"

[madinmaryland]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/opinion/25krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

After Barack Obama’s defeat in Pennsylvania, David Axelrod, his campaign manager, brushed it off: “Nothing has changed tonight in the basic physics of this race.”

He may well be right — but what a comedown. A few months ago the Obama campaign was talking about transcendence. Now it’s talking about math. “Yes we can” has become “No she can’t.”

This wasn’t the way things were supposed to play out.

Mr. Obama was supposed to be a transformational figure, with an almost magical ability to transcend partisan differences and unify the nation. Once voters got to know him — and once he had eliminated Hillary Clinton’s initial financial and organizational advantage — he was supposed to sweep easily to the nomination, then march on to a huge victory in November.

Well, now he has an overwhelming money advantage and the support of much of the Democratic establishment — yet he still can’t seem to win over large blocs of Democratic voters, especially among the white working class.

..snip

According to many Obama supporters, it’s all Hillary’s fault. If she hadn’t launched all those vile, negative attacks on their hero — if she had just gone away — his aura would be intact, and his mission of unifying America still on track.

But how negative has the Clinton campaign been, really? Yes, it ran an ad that included Osama bin Laden in a montage of crisis images that also included the Great Depression and Hurricane Katrina. To listen to some pundits, you’d think that ad was practically the same as the famous G.O.P. ad accusing Max Cleland of being weak on national security.

Let me offer an alternative suggestion: maybe his transformational campaign isn’t winning over working-class voters because transformation isn’t what they’re looking for.

..snip

Interesting perspective from Paul Krugman.

[Skwmom]

1. Clinton hack who surprise, surprise was a big proponent of the FAIR/ABUSIVE trade which has

devastated this country and led to worldwide worker abuse and unsafe products flooding into this country.

Off course now Clinton talks about "saving" the middle class her and hubby helped destroyed.

[chimpymustgo]

5. That's really ignorant to dismiss one of the best liberal economic minds of our time.

You people are just plain silly. You should read the article and THINK about it.

[islandmkl]

2. you take your thumb and your forefinger and place them slightly up you upturned wrist...

press lightly and you will determine whether there is a pulse...

DO NOT equate brain activity (or lack of) with signs of life...

gee thanks, Paul...astute regurgitation of HRC/MSM weekly talking points

[BeyondGeography]

3. This post is so different from the three or four other Krugman column threads

Your "interesting perspective from Krugman" line at the end makes all the difference.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

4. Disproving a prediction that nobody ever made

Where is this straw man who claimed that Obama would "sweep easily to the nomination, then march on to a huge victory in November?" Nobody in Obama's campaign has ever made that claim. Nobody is claiming it's "Hillary's fault," but lots of people are pissed at Hillary for acting like a Republican. This article is a complete mischaracterization.

[speedoo]

6. OP, your subject line is misleading.

To quote Krugman: "And unless Democrats can get past this self-inflicted state of confusion, there’s a very good chance that they’ll snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this fall."

You could argue that since Krugman is always critical of Obama, he's implicitly saying that Obama, rather than Democrats in general, have a "self-inflicted state of confusion", and we could debate that.

While my opinion of Krugman has been destroyed by his apparant total buy in to Hillary and her lies, he actually infers a fair point in this piece. Whoever the Democratic nomineee is, the GE has to focus on the economy. But IMO, Hillary is spending far too much time tearing down Obama, instead of attacking McCain and Bush generally.

[KittyWampus]

7. Krugman crossed into hack-dom last week. He sets up strawmen to prop up his failed candidate

Oh well.

[joeybee12]

8. Instead of learning from his mistakes, Barry and his Bots blame the messenger...

...maybe other people have a different perspective you might want to listen to instead of whine about...whining is sure to lead to defeat come November.

[xchrom]

9. recommend

[navarth]

10. I like Paul Krugman. He doesn't have to agree with me all the time.

Anybody can make a mistake in their choice of candidate. He's still batting about .800 or so. Good enough for me.

I'm sure Obama has enough faults for everyone to talk about. It's just that Hillary impresses me as being so much worse. At this point, she's just barely better than McCain.