Oh Paul, Get Some Vision
By SusanUnPC on March 8, 2008 at 10:30 AM in Barack Obama, Economy, Health Care, Hillary Clinton
Paul, honestly, always with the economy. Always with the who’s-got-the-better-health-care-and-economic-stimulus-plans, not to mention whose economic advisers tilt precipitously to the right. Dude!
You’re puttin’ me on a bum trip, Paul, with that but-he’s-less-progressive-and-his-plans-are-weaker. I know you’re the rare professor with scuffed-up shoes from actually walking with both feet on the ground. But, hey dude, we’re building a religion here:
Okay, Paul. Your turn now. Try not to put me to sleep. I prefer being in a trance.
[I]f the Democrats want to win this year, they have to focus on economic anxiety.
Some people reject that idea. They believe that this election should be another referendum on the war, and, perhaps even more important, about the way America was misled into that war. That belief is one reason many progressives fervently support Barack Obama, an early war opponent, even though his domestic platform is somewhat to the right of Mrs. Clinton’s.
More from Paul Krugman’s latest column, “The Anxiety Election,” below:
[Krugman talks about Iraq, worth reading, then gets into the economic issues critical for the election.]
According to exit polls, Mr. Obama narrowly edged out Mrs. Clinton among Ohio voters who consider Iraq the most important issue — but these voters cast only 19 percent of the ballots in the Democratic primary. Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton led by 12 points among the much larger group of voters citing the economy as the most important issue — and by 16 points among those who cited health care. Mrs. Clinton’s winning margin was twice as large among those who were worried about their own financial situation as among those who weren’t.
Here is an ad that Hillary Clinton ran in Ohio:
Here are more ads that were run in Ohio and Texas. Now back to Krugman:
Why has Mr. Obama stumbled when it comes to economic issues? Well, on health care — which is closely tied to overall concerns about financial security — there is a clear, substantive difference between the candidates, with the Clinton plan being significantly stronger.
More broadly, I suspect that the Obama mystique — his carefully created image as a transformational, even transcendent figure — has created a backlash among those unconvinced that he’s interested in the nuts-and-bolts work of fixing things. Ohio voters were more likely to say that Mr. Obama inspires them — but more likely to say that Mrs. Clinton has a clear plan for the country’s problems.
And Mr. Obama’s attempt to win over workers by portraying himself as a fierce critic of Nafta looked, and was, deeply insincere — an appearance particularly costly for a candidate who tries to seem above politics as usual.
Thanks to Tuesday’s results, the nomination fight will go on to Pennsylvania in April, and probably beyond — and rightly so. It’s now clear that Mrs. Clinton, like Mr. Obama, has strong grass-roots support that cannot be simply brushed aside without alienating voters that the party will badly need in November. …
Read all of “The Anxiety Election.”
And check out our other articles here on Paul Krugman and Barack Obama’s weak economic stimulus/health care plans, particularly in contrast to those of Hillary Clinton and the much-missed candidate John Edwards.
This one — “Obama Launches The Worst Kinds of Lying Attacks That Undermine Americans’ Hope for Universal Health Care” — is a good start. But there’s much more.
by Ronald Scott
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