TPM: Krugman on Obama

I'll be brief.  Talkingpointsmemo has an interesting interview with the New York Times' Paul Krugman about Obama's campaign and policies here.  

It can't hurt to know more about how and why Krugman's views on Obama evolved.  

On healthcare:

Health care is make or break for whether we're going to have a real liberal turn in policy or not. Health care is the gaping hole in the welfare state. We all agree that the system is deeply flawed. And health care has political spillover. If Democrats get major health care reform, then it kind of re-legitimizes the idea of activist government policies. Even conservatives say that.

Yet on health care Obama is behaving as kind of, "Let's make a deal." The idea that he would be talking even in the primary campaign about the big table is suggesting that he is not all that committed to taking on special interests.

On the big problems there's a fundamental, deep-seated difference between the parties. I've always just felt that his tone was one suggesting that his inclination is to believe that we can somehow resolve these thing through a kind of outbreak of good feeling.

I am sympathetic to the the view that Krugman articulates that the differences of opinion on the Democratic side of the aisle on foreign policy are relatively unimportant.  Not only is no Democrat going to start another war, but all of them will wind down the Iraq war given the present state of play.  Therefore, the real issue is how the candidates are laying the groundwork for a domestic agenda -- also the arena in which they will all get the most opposition from Republicans and moneyed interests.  

Krugman's main criticisms of Obama seem to be that Obama is boxing himself into a corner by running to the right of Clinton and Edwards on domestic issues and that by looking for compromise positions now, before the general election, he is placing himself (and progressives) at a huge disadvantage.

[A]fter the election, if you come in after having opposed mandates and having said Social Security is in a crisis, then you're going to have some problems fending off Republican attacks on health care and The Washington Post's demands that you make Social Security a top priority. Mostly it's a question of what happens after the election.

Of course one can disagree with Krugman's point of view.  But it is worth considering.