Ma nishtana?
Crossposted from jesselava.com.
Krugman: "President Obama's speech outlining the financial plan described the underlying problem very well...Unfortunately, the plan as released doesn't live up to the diagnosis."
Is there a single major policy area for which this criticism of Obama would not be apt? The stimulus. The bailout. Executive secrecy. Torture and civil liberties. Potentially health care (we'll see). We get wonderful speeches, insightful analysis, accurate rhetoric about what needs to happen. Then we get the actual plans. And we go, "That's it?"
As the youngest asks the oldest on Passover, "Ma nishtanah ha lyla ha zeh mikkol hallaylot?" The question is often referred to simply as "Ma nishtanah." It means, "What makes this night different from all other nights?"
In other words: So what else is new?
Krugman: "President Obama's speech outlining the financial plan described the underlying problem very well...Unfortunately, the plan as released doesn't live up to the diagnosis."
Is there a single major policy area for which this criticism of Obama would not be apt? The stimulus. The bailout. Executive secrecy. Torture and civil liberties. Potentially health care (we'll see). We get wonderful speeches, insightful analysis, accurate rhetoric about what needs to happen. Then we get the actual plans. And we go, "That's it?"
As the youngest asks the oldest on Passover, "Ma nishtanah ha lyla ha zeh mikkol hallaylot?" The question is often referred to simply as "Ma nishtanah." It means, "What makes this night different from all other nights?"
In other words: So what else is new?
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yeah... here's the new plutocracy, same as the old plutocracy.
June 19, 2009 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wouldn't go so far as to say this guy's the same as the last guy. What I mean is that Obama routinely gives rousing speeches that diagnose the problems superbly, and then his actual policy prescriptions are half loafs, at best.
June 19, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. I'm so very very unhappy with Obama so far. Yet I'm also very happy he's president and not McCain and certainly not bush.
June 19, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
That last sentence could have been written about just about anyone.
June 20, 2009 2:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
I suppose one defense is that politics moves in small steps, especially if the leader is a sort of minimalist or incrementalist.
Another defense is that Congress writes the laws, not the President, and many believe it should be that way contra perhaps how we can see Bush/Cheney. If the plan isn't up to snuff, why isn't Congress beefing it up (or paring it down as the case may be)? Well, partly because politics isn't simple.
Do you have a list of specific items which particularly disappoint?
June 19, 2009 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes I do. As mentioned, the stimulus; it should have been bigger and more targeted. (A bunch of it was wasted on upper class tax cuts that have very little stimulative value.) Yes that's partly Congress but the president did a great deal to help shape it and broker deals.
In terms of the bailout, he kept saying exactly the right thing, which was that the danger of doing too little is greater than the danger of doing too much...and then his plan was basically the same as Bush's, except with more bells and whistles. There was a moment when temporary nationalization started gaining steam -- remember when Lindsay Graham, among others, reluctantly said we should consider it? -- and then the moment passed. And that's basically all the president, not Congress.
Then there's executive secrecy, where Obama's been as bad as Bush (or in some cases worse) with the exception of releasing the Bush torture memos and a couple other smallish things. Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan have had excellent analysis of all those details.
Regarding torture, it's good that Obama changed the Bush policy, but he also has stated that we should not enforce the law on those who perpetrated torture -- making me wonder what exactly he thinks those anti-torture laws are for. He tries to get around it by saying we should look forward and not backward -- but by that rationale, why enforce any laws at all? Or he says we shouldn't prosecute people acting in good faith on Justice Department memos -- but what if they exceeded those orders (as we now know was almost surely the case), and what of those who in BAD faith created those memos? There's no real answer.
Those are the issue areas I mentioned above, and those are the areas where I think Obama has done an excellent job of diagnosing problems without doing quite as good a job of solving them.
June 20, 2009 2:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
eds, good point about congress. As far as a domestic policy agenda, is a President only as good as the congress he has to work with?
June 20, 2009 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
eds, good point about congress. As far as a domestic policy agenda, is a President only as good as the congress he has to work with?
June 20, 2009 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah Jessie. Maybe it is because I am old or that I have become accustomed to the life of the hermit. Who knows?
I think that his Administration has already accomplished more than most administrations after a full term.
Laws were enacted that help the populace.
Executive Orders have been signed, relieving millions of suffering.
Bills are being argued and developed that will change the course of this country for generations.
Should more have been done? Is there more in the offing?
I choose to be more optimistic. And I have not felt optimistic about government in in thirty years.
June 20, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dick, we're facing such national crises -- and have such a substantial Democratic margin in Congress -- that I'm not sure the best comparison is to "most administrations." More apt would be FDR or LBJ or even Ronald Reagan (though that latter comparison is unfair to Reagan, since his party didn't control Congress for most of his presidency). And I really don't think Obama is laying the groundwork for a different future the way that any of those presidents did.
June 20, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink