Krugman: 'Who Cares What Centrists Think,' Obama's Having A Great Year
TOM KLUDT – JUNE 16, 2014, 12:05 PM EDT
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."
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/paul-krugman-centrists-obama-good-year
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