Obama and the economy

Two quote from columns in today's papers illustrate much of what is wrong with Obama and his actions with regard to the economy.

Paul Krugman, writing in the NY Times, blames Obama for timidity. Krugman expounds, "Right at the beginning of his administration, what Mr. Obama needed to do, above all, was fight for an economic plan commensurate with the scale of the crisis. Instead, he negotiated with himself before he ever got around to negotiating with Congress, proposing a plan that was clearly, grossly inadequate — then allowed that plan to be scaled back even further without protest."

In another column in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Cliford Orwin says, "The left says the recovery has sputtered because he didn’t pile up enough debt to stimulate it; the right says the debt already piled up has drowned any prospects of recovery. If [Obama] has an answer to either, he hasn’t succeeded in making it heard."

So here we have the most widely read leftist economist blaming Obama for his lack of gumption to do what is right followed by Canadian commentary that focuses on Obama's inability to communicate his solutions (if, in fact, he has any.) The right never accepted Obama's prescriptions for the economy, so now the view is unanimous. Neither the left nor the right like what Obama has done.

The truth is that what we are seeing is the results of Obama's total failure to accomplish much of anything with regard to getting the economy growing again. Because of this, Obama has lost his constituency of supporters who would rally to his side in any battle about what to do next. There ought to be a "middle ground" of growing the economy, but Obama has lost his chance to lead us there since he has lost the support he would need to take any major action. This means that the US will drift under Obama for the next two years. Indeed, it will be up to Congress to propose any major modifications to economic policy prior to 2012; Obama has lost control.