Paul Krugman is a Political Rookie. Or How Barack Obama Left John Boehner Holding the Teabag, Again.

[Tx4obama]

Paul Krugman is a Political Rookie. Or How Barack Obama Left John Boehner Holding the Teabag, Again.

Paul Krugman is a political rookie. At least he is when compared to President Obama. That's why he unleashed a screed as soon as word came about the debt ceiling compromise between President Obama and Congressional leaders - to, you know, avert an economic 9/11. Joining the ideologue spheres' pure, fanatic, indomitable hysteria, Krugman declares the deal a disaster - both political and economic - of course providing no evidence for the latter, which I find curious for this Nobel winning economist. He rides the coattails of the simplistic argument that spending cuts - any spending cuts - are bad for a fragile economy, ignoring wholeheartedly his own previous cheerleading for cutting, say, defense spending. But that was back in the day - all the way back in April of this year.

But as I said, Paul Krugman is a political rookie compared to Barack Obama. He is either unwilling or unable to actually look at the deal that was announced and realize what just happened: Barack Obama ate John Boehner's lunch, and then he turned Boehner out to go preach to his conservative colleagues that this eating of the lunch by Obama is actually politically good for them.

I am not kidding. Nor exaggerating. I will show you exactly how that happened if you bear with me a little bit. But first, let's get some details of the deal out of the way so that everyone has an idea what we're talking about.

SNIP

Full article here: http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2011/08/paul-krugman-is-political-rookie-or-how.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[flamingdem]

6. We have to get rid of the teabaggers, that is the needed focus nt

[barb162]

21. Sounds nice, have any suggestions on how to do that? n/t

[boxman15]

2. I'm happy with defense cuts,

but I'm still upset we're having this debate and there is any deal at all. I wholeheartedly support President Obama and truly support his pragmatic approach to progress: taking what he can so that change can happen, with the potential for more progress in the future, instead of a purist "all or nothing approach".

But he's not perfect, and he should've shot down the idea of a debt deal way back in December when there were rumblings of that happening. He should've thrown a debt ceiling increase in with the deal he cut with the GOP to extend unemployment benefits in exchange for a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts.

But, he didn't. And since we're unfortunately having this debate, I think it's a decent deal for the left. I won't say we outright "won", but I'd say we got a lot to like and a lot to dislike, too. Obviously, I think the cuts are too much (but, we weren't getting anything much smaller) and no revenue disappoints me. But, entitlement protections, defense cuts (with more possibly on the way), Bush tax cuts still set to expire in 2012, the potential of a Democratic Congress in 2013 reversing future cuts. It's a decent deal. But I'm upset there was any dealmaking in the first place.

[flamingdem]

4. Someone on MSNBC explained today that they already knew they couldn't shoot

it down in December, sorry I can't remember the details but he was fully convincing.

[flamingdem]

3. It's a nice irony if true

that means Obama was acting last night, he did look out of sorts and upset.
I bought it hook,line and sinker but should know better. Mr. Cool doesn't
lose it in public, ever, unless he has a reason.

When dealing with those Morans in the house, hey any trick is acceptable.

[MouseFitzgerald]

5. Absolute crap

Insane propaganda like this is why Obama knows he can do whatever the fuck he wants and a large percentage of democrats will blindly agree with whatever he does.

[Mimosa]

7. 'Rookie' implies it's all a 'game', a 'sport '

TX4Obama, over the past 2 weeks I spoke with older friends who are dependent on Social Security and medicare. My friends who are just getting by don't have the luxury of viewing political decisions made on their behalf as games. There's no fun in this for them. One of my friends (age over 80) was literally pulling out her hair and throwing up.

This isn't funny when politicians who are finacially secure are yakking about cutting Social security and Medicare or holding up checks. :(

[gateley]

9. It's become glaring obvious that so many of the Freshmen baggers

view it exactly as that.

I heard Jan Schakowsky say she was on the floor waiting to vote for a couple of hours (this was a few days ago) and there was this little clique of Freshmen Reps all huddled together, laughing, giggling, having a good 'ol time. She said it reminded her of Junior High. That's the impression I get from them, too. (SOME are sincere, but most of them are assholes.)

[elleng]

10. Tho 'rookie' usually used in 'game' context,

its foolish to think anyone thinks this is a game. The awful thing is that some media 'gamers' have caused such angst among seniors; that's a crime.

Social Security and Medicare are off the table, and NO ONE should have suggested, or continue to suggest, that today's beneficiaries will be adversely affected by this. Its very upsetting to hear about your friend.

[gateley]

8. Whew! I'm exhausted trying to rec you back up to zero!

Thanks for posting this - it's nice to see some explanations rather than it's ALL this or ALL that. Because nothing ever is. :shrug:

[Name removed]

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[zalinda]

12. Obama did so little as a State Senator

The House Majority leader gave him bills to sign, just so he'd look good, when he was running for the US Senate. As soon as he became a US Senator, he started running for the Presidency. So, who's the rookie? The only thing he seems to be good at is running.

zalinda

[Tx4obama]

13. There is NOTHING in your comment that is true.

Perhaps it would help if you did a little research regarding what Obama actually did in the Illinois State Senate
and a little research on the date that Obama was sworn into the U.S. Senate and the date he actually announced that he would run for president - then a truthful comment could be composed.

[zalinda]

15. I did my research

Here's one for you.

I called Kelley last week and he recollected the private conversation as follows:

"He said, 'Cliff, I'm gonna make me a U.S. Senator.'"

"Oh, you are? Who might that be?"

"Barack Obama."

Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills.

"I took all the beatings and insults and endured all the racist comments over the years from nasty Republican committee chairmen," State Senator Rickey Hendon, the original sponsor of landmark racial profiling and videotaped confession legislation yanked away by Jones and given to Obama, complained to me at the time. "Barack didn't have to endure any of it, yet, in the end, he got all the credit.

http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/full/

And this article is from a guy who liked and supported Obama.

zalinda

[damonm]

17. ...poorly.

Try this, for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#State_Senator:_1997.E2.80.932004
or, a quick search of DU reveals:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=388x275

Don't come at us wit ONE source, and claim you've "done your research"...
:eyes:

[jefferson_dem]

28. Good lord...

A right wing, Obama-hater meme if there ever was one. Do you want to see his birth certificate too?

[bhikkhu]

14. I kind of wondered if Krugman had even read the legislation first...

as it didn't particularly fit the occasion. I like him as a writer and economist sometimes, but sometimes he seems to be more the "buck-a-word" type writing to satisfy a known audience.

In the case of the last article, the big issue would be that there are no spending cuts until at least 2013. But perhaps he didn't know that when he wrote it.

[grantcart]

16. Namaste Bhikkhu

He has a profile to maintain and once the herd had determined the direction then those anxious to protect their profile simply wanted to get ahead as quick as possible.

Its possible that in order to speed transmission he dispensed with 'writing' and used speech recognition software ensuring that he could get to the front of the line.

[OhioBlue]

26. I thought the same thing.

He's becoming so knee-jerk lately. I don't think he read it and truly analyzed it with an open mind.

[sundancekid]

34. e.x.a.c.t.l.y!!!!! you would think someone with his credentials ...

... would open the document, open the mind BEFORE knee-jerking some vapid meme .... sorry, misinformation and disinformation and uninformed foot-in-mouth are just that - it has no place in our civic lives regardless of the pesky or sacred cow(s) mooooooing them

[Ruby the Liberal]

18. "Barack Obama ate John Boehner's lunch"

:rofl:

That is priceless.

[Dad Infinitum]

22. Boehner brought a SHIT SANDWICH that day

[ClarkUSA]

35. That's correct. That's why Boehner lied about the deal in order to sell it to the Teabagger House.

House Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) office has released the PowerPoint he is using to persuade House Republicans to vote in favor of the emerging debt deal.

Ezra Klein tweets that he doesn't think the presentation is completely accurate: "Boehner's powerpoint misstates the deal to his members. 1) The baseline is not specified in the bill, and does not prevent taxes. 2) Boehner suggests that deficit reduction or BBA has to pass for Prez to get second debt increase. Not so. McConnell mechanism."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/07/31/how_boehner_is_selling_the_debt_deal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PoliticalWire+%28Political+Wire%29

[Vattel]

19. I don't think Krugman or Obama is naive.

The writer of that opinion piece is naive though. He claims that the timing of the triggers is not a problem because the automatic cuts would go into effect in 2013. He's correct that if the trigger is pulled, the increases occur in 2013, but the trigger would be pulled in 2012. He's correct that in theory Congress can undo most of the damage that this deal will do, but why assume that it will? Another ridiculous suggestion is that the triggers are only a problem for Republicans. Nonsense. The idea that in an election year the Democrats will be willing to act so as to trigger huge cuts in defense is pure fantasy. No one can predict the outcome of this with certainty, but it seems likely that the Democrats will allow huge cuts in domestic spending and nasty entitlement reforms to avoid pulling the trigger. That is a real worry.

[Dad Infinitum]

20. Krugman is an economic genius

And he has a Nobel Prize to prove it

[OhioBlue]

27. economic geniuses with nobel prizes can still write

political op-eds prematurely without reading the actual bill.

[Dad Infinitum]

30. How do you know he hasn't read it?

[bhikkhu]

29. "economic genius" is a chuckle-inducing phrase in many circles

Not to dismiss the study and experience that goes into it, but the last century has been chock full of economic geniuses who piloted economies, markets, funds and currencies straight into the ground.

Even the most genius of economic geniuses - Greenspan, who was known simply as "the Maestro" for many years - finally had his "I really didn't see that one coming" moment,in 2008 as he surveyed the smoking ruins of the economy he had been in charge of.

[admonish]

23. excellent article

and like the previous budget deal, Obama and his merry congressmen have seemed to appease the baggers while doing well for us middle class, sane constituents....Bravo, Change has joined Hope in the White House! rec'ed

[rury]

24. Excellent Tx4obama

It's infuriating (but I guess not surprising) how people refuse to pay attention to important details and just assume the worst about THIS PARTICULAR PRESIDENT!!

[MadHound]

25. Hah!

It isn't the politics of the bill that Krugman is judging by, it is the economics of the bill that he is judging by. He finds the economics of the deal to be outrageous, and for good reason. But hey, he's just a Nobel prize winner in Economics, what does he know?

It amazes me how far some folks will go to rationalize the untenable.

[awoke_in_2003]

31. he wasn't a political rookie...

when he was calling out shrub. But then again, John Stewart and Keith Olberman were loved here, until they spoke out against the chosen one.

[admonish]

32. do keep in mind

this whole debt ceiling debate was extremely political and like it or not required GOP house votes to fly. Obama, Reid and Pelosi have certainly kicked the can and are waiting for you 'mericans to vote some backup into office (yeah, replace those teabaggers and 'publicans with donkeys) and early in 2013 can change the conversation and with enough votes give you "progressives" more of what you want. If you really think Obama isn't on your side, vote him out, then you'll really have something to cry about ala W!

[Name removed]

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[Enrique]

36. i have a brilliant idea

some genius OFA staffer should send this awful article around in the name of the Obama campaign. :dunce:

[Armstead]

37. Ahem....