The Lefty Doom Brigade: Rich, Krugman, Dowd -- Please Shut Up!
By getting their panties all bunched up in a demeaning imitation of the impatient cable news-cycle idiots -- reaction to reaction, never long term thinking -- Frank Rich, Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd are now part of the self-fulfilling Doom Brigade that our thoughtful, calm, smart president is battling.
Rich, Krugman and Dowd (Sunday TimesMarch 21), all sounding as if they work for a lefty version of FOX News, bemoan the fact that Obama hasn't hit the panic button. What really bothers them is that he isn't using the financial crisis to push a hard-edged, lefty economic agenda to their liking. They want Obama to get into the retribution game.
Barely eight weeks into the Obama presidency and some "friends" on the left want President Obama to share in the Republican's the-sky-is-falling panic, and amplify it exponentially. The critics on the sound bite right and left seem to forget that we ordinary voters elected Obama because of his calm, cool and collected temperament. We trust him because he is anti-panic by nature.
Krugman writes:
"Treasury has decided that what we have is nothing but a confidence problem, which it proposes to cure by creating massive moral hazard. This plan will produce big gains for banks that didn't actually need any help... And I fear that when the plan fails, as it almost surely will, the administration will have shot its bolt..."
Rich writes:
"Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans' anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed."
"The president and his Treasury secretary have been coddling the Wall Street elite..."
The game here is that what these commentators don't say is that they too are part of the process, not neutral, let alone blameless, observers. They have deadlines to meet! Drama is in their nature. The pundits' dirty little secret (left-or-right, Times-or-FOX) is that they know that a big measure of our problem is a loss of confidence, so that when they claim the sky is falling they help make it so. Taken together the Krugman, Rich and Dowd columns are an act of self-fulfilling and self-destructive irresponsible "prophecy" of failure a la Rush Limbaugh.
Obama is battling the Doom Brigade by not reeling from crisis to crisis but rather he is coolly, calmly and deliberately rolling out a mix of long and short term programs and initiatives. President Obama is the grown up surrounded by pundit children. President Obama is refusing to play the panic-n'-react media game of crisis-as-entertainment "management."
Thank God!
I say this to Rich, Krugman, Dowd et al: give our new president a chance! You all live here too don't you? If our man fails do you all have some island to go to the rest of us don't know about?
You guys can't think long term because your interests are not our country's interests. You live week-to-week in columnists/deadline pretend land. We need long term solutions, not leftist (or rightist) dramatic innovation in the guise of crisis management that makes for good copy but terrible policy. So if you are disappointed that our president is turning out to be the non-ideological centrist and pragmatic and patient realist that he promised he would be, too bad for you. But please don't throw gas on the economic fire just because A) you hoped Obama would be more to the left; B) you have the "patience" of cable news junkies on crack and (C you want politics played as an entertaining blood sport that fits the news cycle of your deadlines.
And I say this to our President:
Mr. President, there is an alternative universe of cable news (and "professional" commentary) and there is the country I live in and that you are the president of. In the real world, where I play with my granddaughter, garden, write, pay bills, struggle, I -- like most Americans -- am so very grateful that you are our president. I am especially grateful because for five long years, while my youngest son served in the United States Marine Corps, his commander in chief was someone who's judgment I did not trust. It was agony to know that my son was sent to a needless war in Iraq to risk his life for a president with no long term strategy and who was given to meaningless, always political, news cycle grandstanding.
My son survived and came home to begin a new life as a husband and young father. And having you working to lead us out of the mess you inherited fills me -- this fifty-six-year-old, middle class white man and former life-long Republican -- with hope. I trust you.
Pay no attention to the dumb-ass news cycles. All you need to do is pay attention to everything that will make my son's years of service to his country worthwhile. All you need to do is pay attention to our long term economy, so that my wife and I can grow old with a modicum of dignity. All you need to do is work to make sure that when my granddaughter goes to school she is taught well and has a chance to be happy and fulfilled. And -- speaking selfishly, since I live near the ocean -- all you need to do is work to reduce global warming so that a few years from now my house isn't under water! Rebuilding our infrastructure is also far more important than the non-issue media-hype about where 162 million went to the losers at AIG. And yes we have a banking problem. We also have a strong and vibrant country to back you up. We are going to be okay.
I am more optimistic than ever, both for our country and for your presidency. The fact that you are sticking to your long term plans -- even in the midst of our way overblown short term banking crisis -- and the insane demand that you fire your financial team before they have even had the chance to do anything for us! -- is immensely encouraging.
Ignore Rich, Krugamn, Dowd et al who want dramatic statements and retribution against "evildoers" in the banking industry. You are living in my world, the real world, the world we all care about where messy compromise is the only way to get things done, rather than in the nether sphere of the cable news/punditry that is now infecting even columnists at the Times who are telling you to rip things up, primarily for what amounts to entertainment purposes. You are keeping your eye on the ball, on environmental repair, education reform, better health care, a strong national defense, fairer taxes, wrapping up the war in Iraq, and fighting more effectively in Afghanistan, and yes, reforming our banking system. Hang in there for us.
Mr. President: I -- and many Americans -- trust your judgment far more than the judgment of your critics. Defend us from emotionally satisfying short term drama that will undermine our chance of long term recovery. Stick to your plans. Stick by your team. We are proud of you.
Mr. President: You are leading people who can be patient, regardless of the pretend world of cable news, and breathless commentary. We ordinary Americans believe in your abilities and, like you, we are thinking in terms of months and years, not in the pitiful language of hourly sound bites or weekly deadlines.
You are doing just fine. Stick with us and we'll stick with you.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back (Now in Paperback)
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It's not just confidence. Many of the largest financial institutions have been willing participants in a massive fraud.
The mortgages are not the problem.
I just spent a year working in a dying subprime mortgage company, and the losses for this once well-known company are just a few 10's of millions.
The derivatives are the problem. Large amounts of those have absolutely no market value, and that is what really terrifies the official world.
Thanks Frank, once again I can say you pretty much speak for me. I will give Mr. Krugman credit in that he is the least reactionary of those I often hear from in the pundit world. And I feel he does present his ideas in relation to the Administrations actions in a balanced way - he points out the good as well as what he see as lacking. And most of all he has a clear idea of what should be done and is sticking to it. His ideas "in the room" would probably help the Administration.
But again, Frank you are dead on about the majority of pundits (heck it's their "job" to act this way) and I feel so far the President has acted the ways you describe and I am so very grateful he does.
If only the members of congress could see the big picture as it appears Mr. Obama does.
Keep it up Frank, I am counting on your voice.
Dems have a subconscious desire to be the underdog. That's why we eat our young and self destruct. We want the Repubs to be in power, because we're scared we don't have the real tools to be in power.
Hear, hear!
I've had to stop turning on the news, and even frequent this site less because I'm sick of being SOLD news. I want facts. But this is a business, and everyone is just looking for something shocking to say.
I've tuned them out. If this election has taught me anything, it is that pundits and so-called experts are WRONG WRONG WRONG! I have ultimate trust and confidence in our new President and I am eager to see him succeed.
No Frank, truthful debate is more important than party discipline.
What is with this 'lefty' business? You don't want to be so hyperbolic as to call people like Krugman outright leftists? In that case, I applaud you, in that Paul Krugman is no leftist, but rather, if the term can still mean something real, a liberal.
A liberal with a Nobel Prize. In economics. Opining about economics.
For which you scold the man and make him one of a crowd getting their 'panties in all bunched up'. Who wears panties? Women. So now Krugman is a woman and a lefty, or maybe he's a transvestite lefty.
As your former life, according to past columns you wrote, before your fervent conversion to Obamaism, was faith-based, it is unsurprising that you have now given Obama the full force of your power to believe in him. But going from one end of the political spectrum to the other seems to have unsettled your powers of argument, leaving you only with your fervency and your capacity to indulge in ad hominem attacks on people, who, while you may disagree with them, are very concerned about the country's future, and are trying their damnedest to figure out what the smartest way to proceed might be.
The fact that one of the guys trying to think this through is a Nobel Prize winning economist should be a big plus, for which you might try being grateful. Even if, in doing so, it runs up against your great capacity to believe.
I enjoyed this article, but what is wrong with a Nobel Prize Winner helping us to think and have opinions? I am sure President Obama would not expect us to just go along. He is doing a great job, and we support him. I have a little reservation about Mr. Geithner. So what? I'll get over it. I like all opinions from people who are interested and informed and are not hateful.
This is exactly what I want to say to my president!! Thanks, this is truly how everyone in my neighborhood feels. Most of us are tired of the pundits merry go round ride and have gotten off. With all the Obama bashing going on, you are truly a breathe of fresh air. I don't know what you've written in the past, but right here and right now, your thinking seems to be positive and well thought out. Please keep it up!! We need some voices out here.
Once again, Frank, you nailed it. I am so glad there is someone like you to speak for us. Political leaders on both sides just don't get it. WE elected the president to do just what he's doing. He had overwhelming support...
So very glad I became I recent "fan" of yours and get notifications of your posts. Very straight on. Your letter to our President needs to be "circulated" and give opportunity to those citizens who wish to sign and have it sent on to our President. Seems the critics are the squeeky wheels that get heard - I want him to hear from those of us quietly and patiently supporting him.
Krugman didn't buy that Nobel Prize at Sears. He's an expert in what happened to the Japanese economy when they moved too slowly and timidly in addressing their problems.
He's sees the Obama administration making the same mistakes. And he's speaking up. President Obama NEEDS to hear that criticism. We say what happened to the country when critics were silenced during Bush's time.
I respect your opinions, Mr. Schaeffer, especially about the religious right. I do disagree with you about Paul Krugman. Unlike Dowd and Rich, he is not seizing on the topic du jour. Krugman is considering the longterm in critiquing plans by Obama's economic team.
Read it and weep: http://www
Very good article. Thank you.
While I appreciate the tone and opinions in your post, I disagree that the critics should keep quiet. Wasn't there enough uncritical president-praising with Bush? Why in the world shouldn't they proclaim their views from the rafters? It is, after all, a free country.
Personally, I am an Obama supporter but the Geithner plan leaves me uneasy. I appreciate what you have pointed out in your post, but I also appreciate the dissenting opinions expressed by Krugman, Rich, and Stiglitz. Also please note that Krugman said in an NPR interview that if it works and he turns out to be wrong, then he will be happy to have been wrong.
For so many of us who support President Obama, his Wall Street Bailout proposals have left us disillusioned and even angry. What we have here is George Bush and Henry Paulson re-heated. The same cast of Wall Street insiders who created this disaster are continuing to run the show. Anyone with a fairly good understanding of the situation is rightfully dismayed at the actions of our new President. Perhaps living near the ocean as you do, and appearing fairly regularly on television as a commentator doesn't give you the same perspective as the struggling people out here who have no voice nor any political or corporate connections. People such as Rich, Krugman and Dowd - who you quite unkindly marginalize with the term "lefty" - are not always people that I agree with, but who, more often than not, seem to understand the real feelings of so-called "ordinary" people. What people like you advocate, or seem to, is the quieting down of the outraged Americans, the paternalistic approach to government, of "Just trust us. We know what we're doing",or of media voices who don't march in lockstep with the President. I prefer informed disagreement rather than knee-jerk obediance every time.
Frank Schaeffer, thanks for making so much gosh darned sense and for writing what so many Americans have been feeling for so long. Every one of your editorials here has been a home run, as was your recent appearance on CNN. My hope is that you will get more opportunities (in print and on television) to share your wisdom about the administration in the days ahead.
To Dowd, Krugman and Rich, I would add the vast majority of the content on Huffington Post, with its fetish for "nationali
Ditto!!!
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