Greg Sargent at the Washington Post weighs in what he thinks is underlying the latest brouhaha between President Obama and the left (one of his campaign staff sent an email to supporters blasting Krugman and the liberal blogs). Here's Greg:
That said, this story does provide a window into what I think is a real problem — the nature of the Obama team’s frustration with liberal critics. The problem is that some on the Obama team don’t reckon with what it is lefty critics are actually saying. Obama advisers get angry when they think liberal critics are refusing to accept the limits placed on him by current political realities, and when lefties presume at the outset that Obama will inevitably sell out. That’s reflected in Sandoval’s angry email and in other periodic explosions of anger at the “professional left.”Ezra Klein notes one silver lining to all of this. At least we got inside their heads (or as I'd put it, got their goat). And the goal isn't to get their goat, it's to get their attention. And if you're able to get the attention of the White House, worse things could be said about you than that.
But the lefty critique goes considerably further than this. It’s an argument with Obama’s team about tactics and strategy, about what might be attainable if he handled these negotiations differently. The case from these critics is if Obama approached negotiations with a harder line, it would be better politics because it would juice up the base and show indys he’s a fighter. They also advocate for this course because the current dynamic is hopelessly broken — and they think a more aggressive approach has at least a chance of broadening the field of what’s substantively possible. (There’s a segment on the left that also thinks Obama wants what’s in the deals he keeps securing, but the points above are broadly what many lefties agree on.)
Whether you agree with this critique or not — people make persuasive cases in both directions — Sandoval’s email shows a broader failure to reckon with what it is that has lefty critics so ticked off. That’s the real problem here — and it’s one of the key causes of the tension between the left and the White House.
Paul Krugman, NYT columnist and Nobel economist, weighs in as well:
Well, at least they’re paying attention.
I would say this: on one side you have the GOP, which responds to completely crazed Tea Party demands by doing all it can to assure the hard right that it’s on its side. On the other, you have the Democratic establishment or at least part thereof, which responds to complaints from its own base that it’s going too easy on the crazies by lashing out at the base, with a bit of bearded-professor bashing on the side.
Way to strengthen your bargaining position, guys.
