Progressive Expectations

Posted on 12/20/2009 at 7:28 pm by Bob Cesca

Paul Krugman, who isn’t an apologist for the president, continues to make a case for passing the Senate bill. Simultaneously, Krugman reinforces the idea that President Obama has mostly governed the way he ran:

There’s a lot of dismay/rage on the left over Obama, a number of cries that he isn’t the man progressives thought they were voting for.

But that says more about the complainers than it does about Obama himself. If you actually paid attention to the substance of what he was saying during the primary, you realized that

(a) There wasn’t a lot of difference among the major Democratic contenders
(b) To the extent that there was a difference, Obama was the least progressive

In terms of healthcare reform, the big difference between the Edwards and Clinton plans and President Obama’s plan was that the Obama plan lacked mandates. The Edwards and Clinton plans were considered more progressive and they included mandates. Now that President Obama has included mandates, he’s less progressive. Weird dynamic. Additionally, Howard Dean’s 2004 plan didn’t have a public option. Edwards in 2004 was more centrist than John Kerry.

I still argue that in many ways President Obama is the most liberal president since LBJ, if not FDR. Strictly in terms of priorities and accomplishments, he’s more liberal than Carter or Clinton. Edwards ’08 or Dean ’04 might’ve had more liberal priorities overall, but we’ll never really know how successfully they would’ve governed. Actually, if Edwards had been elected last year and his affair had gone public… Anyway…

Krugman concludes with some tough love:

But back to Obama: the important thing to bear in mind is that this isn’t about him; and, equally important, it isn’t about you. If you’ve fallen out of love with a politician, well, so what? [emphasis is Krugman's]

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  • roxsteady

    I think what’s really upsetting a lot of us is that Obama came into office with a lot of good will but, once it was clear that the Republicans would not work with him he continued to try and paid dearly. Then, as the Senate began working on healthcare, Baucus refused to put a public option in his bill. Then Reid adds one and it gets stripped out by people who haven’t been called out by Obama or Russ Feingold. Now, it appears that his own party was going against what he campaigned on and he doesn’t appear willing to force the issue. If this bill is passed without changes, specifically the public option being added in conferenc or in the next session, he’ll have proven himself a weak leader. You have to go down swinging and not at the Liberal base that busted it’s ass getting you elected. We expected the same fight for us and so far, we haven’t seen it. Let’s see what the changes are and if they can pass them. But, if they can’t they’ll have no one but the conservadems to blame.

  • roxsteady

    Frankly, I’m hoping for all our sakes that this bill is improved. I’m also hoping that once a good bill is passed that everyone who is a blue dog and is up for reelection in 2010 gets their asses handed to them. I’m waiting to see those deer in the headlights looks from those who have helped to fuck this bill up so far. I want to hear the concession speeches and am hoping some will be tear filled. Stunned that they lost their jobs for their duplicity. I really want that!

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    roxsteady, in my district that will mean Parker Griffith losing to Wayne Griffin, which would be just like George Wallace losing to the Grand Dragon of the KKK. Sorry, I can’t see myself wanting that to happen. I take what I can get from Griffith: he’s great on veterans, for instance, but I watched him throw red meat to the crowd at the town hall in August.

  • JDS

    Bob your ability to express the reality of things and to keep your thinking clear and straight is exceptional. I keep wondering who the people who have “fallen out of love” think they would want for President who could be elected. Maybe you ought to start a movement promoting the value of using critical thinking skills.

  • LAH

    If Progessives think we are pissed, you should see what the wingnuts are saying. I sometimes comment on the site of my local newspaper. I just had someone tell me it was time to “grease the treads of his tank with my innards.”

  • idabamaho

    Here’s my critique. Obama ran saying no mandates and a robust public option is THE ONLY WAY to bring down premiums.What are we getting? Subsidies going straight into the pockets of the insurance companies who created this mess with a slew of milk toasty regulations that have language that gives them an excape hatch.I don’t think it’s too much to expect politicians to be as vigorous in governing as their rhetoric in the campaign would suggest they intended to do.Now, after progressives put Obama in the White House, and make no mistake about that, we have Rahm publicly saying the left doesn’t matter.Well, we’ll see. Cry Baby? Better than being a butt boy with a sore ass.

  • eljefejeff

    Rahm Emanuel is correct. We don’t have to worry about the left. The get out the vote effort might be lacking in 10 and 12, but when it comes down to it, there will be a very clear distinction between Obama and Romney, or Obama and Palin, or Obama and Pawlenty….actually I bet it’s none of them, probably someone under the radar. But the point is that no matter how much they deny it now, just like the Hillary voters who were so certain they’d never vote for Obama, progressives will by and large show up for him in 2012.

  • roxsteady

    Sorry Matt but, I live in New Jersey and don’t have that kind of problem. The idiots here voted for Fatty Arbuckle as our new Govenor but, this is still a Blue State. Sadly, as long as the ignorant and uninformed people keep electing these asswholes, they deserve the government they get. I’m only sorry that Lieberman isn’t up for reelection until 2012. I’m sure Connecticut is itching to get rid of his ass. Hey, didn’t John Gotti Jr. get released from jail last week? There’s something I’d like him to do for us!

  • grs

    How can anyone blame Obama on healthcare at this point? The House passed their version. The Senate is working on theirs. It’s not in the hands of the Executive Office yet. I know the White House can lean on people, but that’s about it right now. Senate leadership is who should be doing all the actual leading at this point.And yes, “liberal Obama” was a fallacy created by the right wing to scare their base during the presidential campaign and it was carried by the mainstream media. The dude is a true moderate (which I guess makes him a liberal in some people’s eyes?). The ironic part is that he’s probably more an actual conservative than GWB since GWB was anything but conservative (I mean real, fiscal conservative, not teabagger/Palin conservative). So refrain from getting caught up in the distractions and faux controversies.Keep the Obama accomplishment list going (both positive and negative) and we’ll see how he looks 3 years into his presidency. I’m already more pleased with Obama’s one year compared to GWB’s 8.

  • Bondwooley

    Obama didn’t turn out to be as liberal as we thought, but that might be OK in light of the new GOP re-branding strategy:http://bit.ly/fxv3G(satire)

  • http://www.democratz.org www.democratz.org

    Progressives don’t have to sit and take theconservative nonsense from conservatives in ourDemocratic Party and the RepubliKLAN party.You influence a lot of people. Read what I have tosay and if you like it tell people about thisuntil we bust the conservative coalition incongress.We’re going to go after the friends ofconservative Democrats and Republicans with amassive consumer boycott of those companies thatgive money to conservatives. People did that inSouth Africa and India and we’re going to do ithere.I called these 2 organizations.Omaha Steaks 800 228 2778Nebraska Beef Council 800-421-5326and told a person in both organizations, one abeef seller and the other an organization thatpromotes Nebraska beef thatI communicate with thousands of people on the net and thatUNLESS their CEOs get Senator Ben Nelson to getall Anti abortion language out of the final healthcare bill they can forget me doing business withthem and also forget about me buying Nebraska bredbeef at the Supermarket which I will make surethat the local Supermarket does not sell.Spread the word please.Demand congress fix the Medicare prescription drug benefitgo here http://bit.ly/drug_benefitSend a message to traitor Joe Lieberman demandinghe help enact a strong single payer public optioninto law.http://bit.ly/traitorjoeAlso at http://bit.ly/public_optionSend this message wide and far. Thank you.You can see further actions at http://WWW.DEMOCRATZ.ORG

  • scribblechic

    Thanks GRS. Bushies aren’t the only one revising history these days. Progressives have taken the Republican “Most liberal politician in the history of Congress and the World” Meme (that they weren’t buying during the campaign)and are now using it to turn up the volume on what they do best: WHINE and COMPLAIN.It’s funny how Progressives feel they own the Obama administration, and were solely responsible for his nomination AND election. Those of us who supported Obama from the day he announced his run for office don’t remember all the progressive parades and “Progressives *heart* Obama” stickers being passed around. When we were going door to door motivating high school and college kids to get involved MoveOn, FDL and DailyKOS were no where to be found. It was my church, my neighbors, and some Obama campaign staffers showing us how to mobilize and organize our neighborhoods for change.Progressives were considering the big names in the race because progressives love winning for the sake of winning. The progressives who weren’t loving Clinton so much were leaning towards the REAL liberal: Dennis Kucinich.Anyhoo…Progressives jumped on the Obama band wagon when all the grassroots community based organizers and supporters started donating their $5 and $10 to the Obama coffers and the TV’s and Tubes started showing how fired up we were over OUR candidate. Oh and when he started kicking the shit outta the Clinton campaign. THEN THE PROGRESSIVES CAME….Progressives didn’t create Obama. He ran as an intelligent, cool headed, moderate but you didnt hear it because all progressives wanted was to attached themselves at the last minute to the winning team. Did it help Obama become the 44th President of the United States? You betcha.Does that give you the right to claim full responsibility and ownership of this administration? Hell NO!!! He’s not your fucking puppet and its absolutely SO Republican of you to undermine the well being of the nation with your tantrum and threats of overthrowing this administration after 1 year in office. Try it if you want to…We kicked your ass before and we’ll do it again. And as usual your drunken lust for power will bring your whiny asses back into the fold.

  • scribblechic

    Thanks demorcratz.org….it’s actions like these that I’m ALL for. It’s the crying and complaining that I’m not down with.

  • sketchartist

    Over and over, while Obama was running for president, I would get a solicitation from his campaign for a contribution. They always wanted it sent by a certain date, which, being a bit of a procratinator, I usually didn’t make. Always, by the time I got around to mailing my contribution, they would have directly violated whatever promise they had made in their solicitation. That was my advance look at how Obama governs.

  • thruwithbuzz

    @idabamaho You said: “I don’t think it’s too much to expect politicians to be as vigorous in governing as their rhetoric in the campaign would suggest they intended to do.” Actually I think it is too much to expect. When has any President accomplished every thing they said they would during the campaign?