The Obama Agenda - By PAUL KRUGMAN

[kpete]

"This year’s presidential election was a clear referendum on political philosophies
— and the progressive philosophy won."

The Obama Agenda

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: November 7, 2008

The Obama Agenda

Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative country, and voters will punish Democrats if they move to the left. Others say that the financial and economic crisis leaves no room for action on, say, health care reform.

Let’s hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.

..............the response to the economic crisis is, in itself, a chance to advance the progressive agenda.

. . ......So a serious progressive agenda — call it a new New Deal — isn’t just economically possible, it’s exactly what the economy needs.

The bottom line, then, is that Barack Obama shouldn’t listen to the people trying to scare him into being a do-nothing president. He has the political mandate; he has good economics on his side. You might say that the only thing he has to fear is fear itself.

much more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/opinion/07krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

[Bread and Circus]

1. It's this simple: Obama has to produce good results. He can be as big and as liberal as he wants

and as long as he, and the Democrats, are successful they will get re-elected.

On the flip side, he can be as cautious, do-nothing, and "centrist" as can be imagined but if in 4 years the economy sucks and our national security seems tenuous he will lose his job.

So, the question is what will make us the most successful, and with Krugman, I have to agree with the "how we get there".

[Overseas]

2. K&R -- Yes please. Glad to hear Krugman endorsing a New Deal approach. //nt

[jdlh8894]

3. Where is the money coming from?

The Govt. is bailing out the FATCATS! Who in turn will use that money to pay taxes that will be coming due. We the people are the ones that will get screwed! Hell, call China again! I'm sure they will extend more credit to a country that can't pay !!! WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING TO COME FROM !!!! Sorry, I'm PISSED!

[Avalux]

4. I really hope Obama listens to Mr. Krugman. n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

5. I love me some Krugman in the morning

Thanks for this :D

[Metta]

6. yes, think small and women shouldn't have the vote and we can't marry interracially.

And blacks can be counted as 2/3 of a person. Go thugs.

Why isn't this guy being considered for Treasury?

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. C'mon, Mr. President, Listen to this guy. He knows what he is talking about!

:loveya: for Paul.

[ProSense]

8. Krugman is right. Obama has a tremendous opportunity.

Kerry made this point in his endorsement and in a recent speech on the economy:

Our infrastructure has been crumbling for years. At a time when can’t miss financial techniques have appeared and disappeared, infrastructure of all kinds—information, transportation, and energy—remains an excellent investment. We have to remember what happens when we invest in America. In the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt undertook a visionary project to bring electricity to all the homes in America—and you know what? He delivered. Of course, there were groups who opposed rural electrification. Then as now, there were demagogues in politics who called it socialism. Sound familiar, no? Well, if we’d had today’s Republican Party in the White House during the Great Depression, I’m afraid our farmers would probably still be reading by candlelight!

Now, as then, we need fundamental change— not bite sized ideas that are poll tested, sound-bite ready and destined to be mere footnotes to the times we live in. It’s time we end the era of incrementalism and begin a bold new age in progressive politics. There are students today in Goshen, Massachusetts who park their cars outside the library when it’s closed at night because that’s the only place in town that’s accessible to high-speed broadband internet. It’s time to give these kids the kind of future they deserve.

There is no part of today’s economy in greater need of transformation or offering more promise for kicking our economy back into gear -- than our energy sector. The scope of our challenge is tremendous but the possibilities for wealth creation and jobs are greater. The International Energy Agency says the world needs to invest $45 trillion between now and 2025 to create clean, energy-efficient systems around the world. Experts tell us that, to ward off climate change, we need the green revolution to happen three times faster than the industrial revolution. This is a crisis, and here is our opportunity.

Economists tell us that clean energy will be the great job-creator of the 21st century—but Washington still hasn’t figured out how to make that an American century. After years of denial and delay from this Administration, these green jobs are being created in places like Germany and Japan. There are 750,000 green jobs in the US today. In 30 years we can have six times that many. The choice is simple: we can be left behind, or we can lead.

More here

[changemonger]

9. KRUGMAN for Treasury Secretary !

Now, that'd be great.

[mopinko]

10. he ain't scared of shit. nt

[Peace Patriot]

11. Yes, a new New Deal--and 100% transparent vote counting.

Obama needs to do the first. And he needs to get the Pukes and DINOs out of our way while we do the second.

If Obama proposes and fights for a new New Deal, as the first priority of his administration, and if we do our part to guarantee 100% transparent and fair elections in 2010 and 2012, then we have a secure peoples' revolution for the 21st century.

The two are one. He can't succeed at the former, if we don't do the latter. And we cannot trust Congress to do it. Believe me. This has to come from the bottom up, by means of a massive citizen movement to pressure local/state election officials. If we can't pry their corrupt contracts with Diebold & brethren from their traitorous fingers, we can demand a ballot for every vote and the counting of EVERY BALLOT. Our biggest obstacle to that is not Pukes, it's DINOs, who have protected the election theft industry, and LIED TO their constituents that a 1% audit in an optiscan system run by Diebold & brethren is secure. It is not even close to being secure.

Right now, even in the best of states, which have optiscan (paper ballot) systems, 99% of the ballots go into a box and are never seen again, and the votes are turned into highly manipulable electrons, run on'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushwhack corporations! Only 1% of the ballots are automatically counted--a miserably inadequate audit in a 'TRADE SECRET' code system. And half the country doesn't even have that--they have no paper trail at all.

They can and did shave Obama's mandate. They can and did pick our candidates for Congress in the primaries, to further tweak the Congress toward 'Blue Dog' DINOs. They can and they ARE fucking with elections right now in Minnesota, Georgia, Alaska (Senate races) and in at least one House race I know of in Orange County, CA. They have subtle power and bludgeon power, and direct power over election results and lobbying/corruption power over election officials, and they can use it to come back in 2012, after the corpo/fascist media bashes Obama for four years, and the corpo/fascist financiers induce more suffering and turmoil, and outright steal it in 2012, like they did in 2004.

The corpo/fascist owned and controlled voting machines and the corpo/fascist owned and controlled media are a lethal combination. We have little power right now to force the media to serve the public interest, but we have great potential power locally to demand transparent vote counting. Your local county registrar, or the county supes who appoint that position, may live down the street from you. In most states, your state capitol is not that far away. Local/state officials are closer to the people. This is the most hopeful and possible venue to get this vital job done. TRANSPARENT VOTE COUNTING. Vote counting that everyone can see and understand. Vote counting in PUBLIC VIEW.

The people will support a new New Deal in overwhelming numbers--just as they supported the first New Deal--but they can't do it if their votes can easily--EASILY!--be switched or 'disappeared.'

The same fascist corporation that 'disappeared' 18,000 votes for Congress in FL-13 in '06, are fucking over Al Franken in Minnesota as we speak--ES&S, a corp with hair-raising ties to extremist rightwing causes. And, goddammit, it was the DINOs in this Congress who deep-sixed the FL-13 theft!

A new New Deal--supported by transparent vote counting! There's the program. Let's do our part!