Krugman makes the "centrist" mistake common to our elite media.

[Stoic]

Now, don't get me wrong. I generally love Paul Krugman but here he has his head hovering near "up your ass-ville".

"Maybe I’m wrong, but my sense is that Jason Furman has become a proxy target for some Obama supporters who, now that the Great Satanness has been defeated, are suddenly starting to have the queasy feeling that their hero might be a bit of a …. centrist."

The false centrism argument can be as follows...

Man A thinks it's okay to shoot yourself in the head with a .45cal gun.
Man B thinks that's a stupid idea.
Man C, the centrist argument, claims a .22 is a "middle" choice so is the best of the two.

A policy, or argument is never better just because it splits the difference between one "extreme" or the other. It should stand on it's own logical feet.

[nomorenomore08]

1. I think the "middle ground" would be more like shooting yourself in the leg, but point taken.

This fallacy of the "center" being the ideal position comes from equivocating, wishy-washy people who don't want to piss off either side of this or that issue. On the level of national politics, this mentality results in trying to please all the people all the time, and never actually accomplishing much of anything.

As I see it, the "liberal" side and the "conservative" side are supposed to complement each other, not cancel each other out as often happens.

[On the Road]

2. I Doubt Krugman Would Use That Particular Reasoning

Krugman is an economist. He is saying is that Furman is a good economist, and makes recommendations that he believes will benefit the entire country, not just the rich.

[Larkspur]

3. I wouldn't mind Furman in Obama's economic team if Obama had

actually diversified his economic advisory team. But his entire team are Wall Streeters. Would like to see labor and environmentalists leaning economists on that team.

[sshan2525]

4. Krugman has long had a "krush" on Hillary....

so you need to filter all of his statements about Obama through that lens. He's generally a reasonable guy except for that.

[TahitiNut]

5. Other than Kucinich and Edwards, the candidates (including Obama) ...

... took a "blame the worker" approach (at least significantly) toward unemployment. When a politician parrots the corporatist line of "education and training" as a major policy initiative with regard to unemployment, I hear the chuckling behind the doors of the off-shoring capitalists and corporatists.

Somebody needs to tell Obama that a graduate degree isn't required to ask "do you want fries with that?" Jason Furman ISN'T the person who'll point that out. Sadly, Paul Krugman never seemed to hammer that into the coprolitic skull if HIS preferred candidate either!

We have folks with degrees in education mowing lawns! We have retirees bagging groceries! We have hundreds of thousands of folks with education and training in computer science working in construction, casual dining, and sales as their jobs were off-shored to India and elsewhere!

Hello? "Education and training" my fat ass!

[charlie]

7. Lol. Coprolitic skull

That's probably the nicest way I've ever heard anyone called a shithead.

[TahitiNut]

9. (grin) Well ...

... "some people" can be both hard-headed and shit-headed. :evilgrin:

[dansolo]

6. We Obama supporters know Obama is a centrist

Just like we knew that Howard Dean was a centrist. It was just the shills in the media who keep bringing up the straw man that Obama's appeal is because people believe he is a liberal.

[Cha]

8. Well, I have another take on Krugman...

Fuck him and his "great sataness" propaganda shite.

Just fuck 'im.

[Voltaire99]

10. He's hardly merely a "centrist." Cf. his AIPAC groveling.

Obama's a dutiful imperial yes-man just like the Great Satanness. Alas, it's the only way you can rise in the corporate, pro-war Democratic party today.

See this insightful piece by the peace activist and former Knesset member Uri Avnery:

http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery06092008.html

[Cha]

11. Oh Fuck. This is the Democratic Presidential

Forum and we're working to get Obama elected so take your shit elsewhere.

Edit~ To change "primaries" to "Forum".

[JoFerret]

12. Krugman gets it on health care

I hope Obama turns to him for analysis etc.

[JoFerret]

13. Please do not start picking on people like Krugman

We need his voice and his intelligence and his support.
(So what that he preferred Clinton and her health proposal. Maybe together we can get an even better deal. After all - he like Edward's even more.Together we can get there.)

Together we can get there.

[wyldwolf]

14. sure. Some of us have said this all along

Obama is a centrist, with more in common with Evan Bayh than Dennis Kucinich.