In Paul Krugman's mind the stimulus debate was one about the scale of the stimulus. Mr. Krugman argued that the stimulus passed by Democratic congress and supported by the president was woefully inadequate to address the depth of the crisis. To the rest of the country, outside of the economic left, the debate was stimulus vs. no stimulus and a Democratic Congress passed a massive unprecedented stimulus package supported by the president and for that matter Paul Krugman.
Is Paul Krugman right, probably but the reality is that the economy is so screwed up, the recession so deep, it would take more then two years to recover no matter what anyone did. Was what Mr. Krugman wanted politically feasible, probably not but that's not the point. The debate over the scale of the stimulus is over, it ended when Obama signed the stimulus bill, the only debate is whether the stimulus worked or not and right now most people think it has not.
Whether it's the stimulus, healthcare, financial reform or whatever action or inaction Obama and the Democrats have taken, the country thinks Obama has pursued and implemented the policies of the left. Why, because it was the left that supported and voted for him. Does Mr. Krugman think that by attacking Obama, he will persuade people who are not ideological that progressive policies will work. Not likely, because Mr. Krugman and Obama are on the same side in their mind. What they probably will perceive is that Mr. Krugman made a mistake voting for and supporting Obama.
The point I'm making is that attacking Obama and Democrats for past decisions is pointless and counter productive to a progressive agenda because YOU enthusiastically voted and supported Obama. If Obama is a failure anybody YOU support is going to be a failure in people's mind.
At the end of the day people will believe that Obama is the representative of progressive policies and they will judge these progressive policies, particularly on the economy, on whether there is an economic recovery while Obama and the Democrats are in control, whether you like it or not.
This is an inflection point in our Country's history, there is an ideological battle going on right now and the winner will probably be decided by who is in power when there is an economic recovery and there will be one at some point. That's why conservatives and their corporate backers will do everything in their power to make sure there is not an economic recovery while Obama is in office. The consequences of the ideological battle will extend beyond economics into social and foreign policy. The next "FDR" will be the President that presides over the economic recovery, I hope that's not President Palin.
Now more then ever we need to support Obama and the Democrats, our whole movement is on the line.