The Democratic Party’s slow awakening to reality: they blew it when they selected neophyte Barack Obama over the clear-eyed, issues-oriented Hillary Clinton.
Wow! The commentariat really is finally catching on to the fact that President Obama is already way out of his depth. Amen to this reader of Paul Krugman’s column at the NY Times this morning:
March 06, 2009 6:20 am
I count on your articles and your thoughts. God how I wish Clinton had become president! She ( and Bill) would have listened to you and other brilliant economists because she is brilliant herself. It's really getting scary now.
— am5parker, los angeles
Krugman’s column is titled the Big Dither (emphasis mine):
Last month, in his big speech to Congress, President Obama argued for bold steps to fix America’s dysfunctional banks. “While the cost of action will be great,” he declared, “I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade.”
Many analysts agree. But among people I talk to there’s a growing sense of frustration, even panic, over Mr. Obama’s failure to match his words with deeds. The reality is that when it comes to dealing with the banks, the Obama administration is dithering. Policy is stuck in a holding pattern.
Here’s how the pattern works: first, administration officials, usually speaking off the record, float a plan for rescuing the banks in the press. This trial balloon is quickly shot down by informed commentators.
Then, a few weeks later, the administration floats a new plan. This plan is, however, just a thinly disguised version of the previous plan, a fact quickly realized by all concerned. And the cycle starts again.
Krugman goes on to say:
The truth is that the Bernanke-Geithner plan — the plan the administration keeps floating, in slightly different versions — isn’t going to fly.
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