Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Hasan’s polemical take on politics, economics and foreign affairs

The problem with Obama

The economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman’s damning verdict.

By Mehdi Hasan Published 04 December 2010 13:00

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, one of America's leading liberal commentators, used his New York Times column yesterday to issue a devastating crititique of Barack Obama in the wake of the president's decision, on Monday, to introduce a pay freeze for federal government workers across the United States.

The Princeton professor describes the move as "a (literally) cheap trick . . . slashing federal spending at a time when the economy is depressed is exactly the wrong thing to do".

But it is his analysis of the politics, not the economics, of the issue that stands out in his column. Krugman writes:

Mr Obama's pay ploy might, just might, have been justified if he had used the announcement of a freeze as an occasion to take a strong stand against Republican demands – to declare that at a time when deficits are an important issue, tax breaks for the wealthiest aren't acceptable.

But he didn't. Instead, he apparently intended the pay freeze announcement as a peace gesture to Republicans the day before a bipartisan summit. At that meeting, Mr Obama, who has faced two years of complete scorched-earth opposition, declared that he had failed to reach out sufficiently to his implacable enemies. He did not, as far as anyone knows, wear a sign on his back saying "Kick me", although he might as well have.

There were no comparable gestures from the other side. Instead, Senate Republicans declared that none of the rest of the legislation on the table – legislation that includes such things as a strategic arms treaty that's vital to national security – would be acted on until the tax-cut issue was resolved, presumably on their terms.

It's hard to escape the impression that Republicans have taken Mr Obama's measure – that they're calling his bluff in the belief that he can be counted on to fold. And it's also hard to escape the impression that they're right.

To be fair, Krugman was never a big supporter of Obama; he backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries in 2008. But it's difficult to disagree with his stinging conclusion:

Whatever is going on inside the White House, from the outside it looks like moral collapse – a complete failure of purpose and loss of direction.

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Tags: America Barack Obama

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25 comments

Sun, 2010-12-05 04:16 — Hans Castorp (not verified)

Apoplektic - agreed!

It seems the NS has decided to opt out of any serious US commentary and simply pull gobbets from Krugman. Lazy lazy. I read PK and don's get the NS to do so all over again. Do better please.

Tue, 2010-12-07 08:23 — javed (not verified)

take no notice of that ZIO-FACIST buckskins, mark my word mehdi if you were'nt a muslim he would be loving the article, this Buckskins sounds like a hardcore poisonous islamaphobe...

Tue, 2010-12-07 08:26 — aron kohan (not verified)

i think i might agree with you on this one javed, i dont like the sound of this Buckskins character his definitely got a thing against muslims...

Sun, 2010-12-05 08:03 — OMG undo the b.s. (not verified)

If only Obama was not the President of America. He'd be more accepted somewhere else. Some of us in America actually think it's 2010 and not 1861.
What was the very first thing on day 1 of hour one he did and sign on 1/5/2008 ?
He froze his entire White House staff's wages. As a sign and measure, and saying, "your here to work for the American people" Let's be honest the Republicans have no intentions of helping to fix America.
They literally hate Obama,,,never saw him coming, and actually tried to con America with an old crazy guy and a chick who thinks God sanction the Iraq war.
http://omg-undothebs.blogspot.com/

Sat, 2010-12-04 13:14 — swatantra

Krugman forgets that Obama is also a Nobel Prize Winner and knows more about Peace than Krugman does. And Politics. And possibly Economics as well. In times of recession and downturn you need a different kind of economics, and grand gestures such as pay freezes and wealth taxes are called for.

Tue, 2010-12-21 11:02 — Axmed

What Nobel Prize? For what? Deploying more troops to the Jahanama. He should return the fake Prize, really.

Sun, 2010-12-05 09:29 — Benedict (not verified)

If you look at the top of the page, you'll notice that this is a blog. Criticising an ephemeral blog for not being a full-length article is like criticising Katie Price for not being Dame Joan Bakewell.

If you want to read Mehdi's latest column, click here: http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/12/england-governor-bank-king

Sat, 2010-12-04 13:51 — Ross Friedman (not verified)

@swatantra nandanwar

ROFL "Krugman forgets that Obama is also a Nobel Prize Winner and knows more about Peace than Krugman does. And Politics"

ROFL

As a leftist (on an American scale), and civil libertarian to my core, Obama is literally almost as bad as Bush. Allowing the assassination of American citizens, what the hell.

Sun, 2010-12-05 11:32 — swatantra

Could Katie Price be the working mans crumpet?
The Republicans have a hatred of Obama like no other President. Its odd that it was Lincoln a Republican from Springfield Illinois which who fought for freedoms against the Democratic Southern slave holders in 186o.

Sat, 2010-12-04 14:31 — toby forward (not verified)

'Krugman forgets that Obama is also a Nobel Prize Winner and knows more about Peace than Krugman does. And Politics. And possibly Economics as well.'
Ho ho ho.
Giving Obama that prize before he had done anything was like giving someone a gold medal at the Olympics, just for turning up.

Sun, 2010-12-05 11:51 — javed (not verified)

Obama is a spent force and a sitting duck president, in 2012 palin will take the show she will kick all the palestnians out of palestine and give israel a free hand to do what it pleases in the middle east, she will bomb the crap out of iran,syria and lebanon if people thought Bush was evil we aint seen nothing yet prepare your selves for palin armageddon an extreme right zionist christian fundamentalist....

Sun, 2010-12-05 11:57 — javed (not verified)

palin will do to the muslims what Hitlar done to the jews...

Sun, 2010-12-05 12:25 — RK (not verified)

Bush, Obama, Palin....Will the comedy / tragedy ever end?

The world is hijacked by likes of Krugman, Blen etc and what we now have is kind of soap opera. The media, internet, newspaper etc have too much power and they promote people of their own kinds.

It does not matter if it is left or right, we have people from economics, politics, law, finance...people who have no knowledge and understanding of sciences hijack science by making use of Noble's to propel their stupid ideas.

The left gave away trillions to Bankers and no-one seems interested talking about it. Why? Get that money back.

This false economy will not work. Nobody is going to fund it.

Sun, 2010-12-05 13:23 — javed (not verified)

oh my god for once RK said somthing sensible and for once i agree with him whats the world coming to when i start agreeing with RK, but RK u still smell of pooh though lol...

Sat, 2010-12-04 15:38 — zsremrxc

The reason they cant find an answer to the economic decline is simply, they can not face the truth... !

Sat, 2010-12-04 16:06 — shoestrade6779

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Looking forward to your visiting.

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Mon, 2010-12-06 22:11 — triedeinsursE

Well done Mehdi. One more parasitic leach from a real journalist. Have you no self respect at all.

Mon, 2010-12-06 22:13 — jie4v7i14

PMT rag week Buckskins?

Sun, 2010-12-05 19:27 — javed (not verified)

RK is loser RK is a loser, RK were r u u coming out to play?

Sat, 2010-12-04 18:45 — Archer2

Krugman's column is just too much Obama-bashing for my taste, on a par with the worst from the tea partiers, but from the left. Krugman attacks Obama because he froze federal wages, and didn't call the Republicans a bunch of bad names. Krugman's animus against Obama is just amazing, and it has been one of his prime motivations since the nomination campaign. Difficult to understand, except that anger and resentment, whether justified or not, is all too easy to understand. While calling Obama a coward, Krugman fails completely to acknowledge the genuine accomplishments of his first two years in office, all of which required a considerable degree of courage and political savvy. Obama can do nothing right, according to Krugman.

Sat, 2010-12-04 22:02 — triedeinsursE

Mehdi, thanks for one more input on what some real journalist has written.

Tue, 2010-12-07 22:28 — triedeinsursE

"Buckskins character his definitely got a thing against muslims..."

We were not attacked by 19 Norwegians.

Tue, 2010-12-07 22:38 — aron kohan (not verified)

oh its all coming out now...

Sat, 2010-12-04 23:41 — writeon1

Krugman is a moderate, liberal, middle-of-the-road economist. That he is appalled at the intellectual vacuum in the White House, and, let's be honest, the reactionary nature of Obama's economic strategy, says a lot more about how far conventional economic dogma has moved away from the mainstream in the United States.

It isn't just Krugman that's close to incredulous. It's Jo Stiglitz, another Nobel winner. Robert Reich. James Galbraith. All liberal/centre economists. It's just that Obama's policies are so fundamentally conservative, I'd call them reactionary, that these guys seem like their on the left and radical.

And finally, those partisans who cling to the illusion that Obama has delivered substantive, structural reforms, well, to be brutally frank, they simply have not been paying attention, but swallowing the propaganda raw.