The Agony of the Liberals
By ROSS DOUTHAT
NYT
They doubted him during the health care debate. They second-guessed his Afghanistan policy. They’ve fretted over his coziness with Wall Street and his comfort with executive power.
But now is the summer of their discontent. From MSNBC to “The Daily Show,” from The Huffington Post to the halls of Congress, movement liberals have had just about enough of Barack Obama.
The catalyst was last week’s lackluster Oval Office address, but the real complaints run deeper. Many liberals look at this White House and see a presidency adrift — unable to respond effectively to the crisis in the gulf, incapable of rallying the country to great tasks like the quest for clean energy, and unwilling to do what it takes to jump-start the economy.
American liberalism has always had a reputation for fractiousness and frantic self-critique. But even by those standards, the current bout of anguish over the Obama presidency seems bizarrely disproportionate.
(More here.)
NYT
They doubted him during the health care debate. They second-guessed his Afghanistan policy. They’ve fretted over his coziness with Wall Street and his comfort with executive power.
But now is the summer of their discontent. From MSNBC to “The Daily Show,” from The Huffington Post to the halls of Congress, movement liberals have had just about enough of Barack Obama.
The catalyst was last week’s lackluster Oval Office address, but the real complaints run deeper. Many liberals look at this White House and see a presidency adrift — unable to respond effectively to the crisis in the gulf, incapable of rallying the country to great tasks like the quest for clean energy, and unwilling to do what it takes to jump-start the economy.
American liberalism has always had a reputation for fractiousness and frantic self-critique. But even by those standards, the current bout of anguish over the Obama presidency seems bizarrely disproportionate.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
I think Douthat nails it here.
But here's a side thought: ever notice how the NYT only allows comments on selected news stories, and then will 'cap' them for editorials (in this case, they were capped after 36 comments; whereas Krugman gets 90?...)
You can find comments attached to any story about say, the Oil Spill, but nothing about the growing costs of the Fanny & Freddie bailout...or anything remotely critical of government policy...
Is this selection bias? I think pretty clearly. In the case of Douthat's article it seems pretty clear no one on the NYT editorial board wants to know whether people agree with him or not.
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