Re: [Pen-l] Krugman critiques Obama stimulus plan

[ravi <ravi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 7, 2009, at 11:02 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Jan 7, 2009, at 12:24 PM, Charles Brown wrote:
>
> > I'm trying to remember whether O's presidential campaign strategy  
> > and tactics made any sense to you.
>
> They did. Evoke "change" in a vague way to appeal to the maximum  
> number of people without getting specific enough to alienate all  
> that many. Rely on the capacity for self-deception among  
> "progressives" and boost it with a rise in black turnout based on  
> racial pride. It worked very well. The guy is a great politician.

Don't forget the financial meltdown, before which Palin and Co were  
running pretty close to Obama (IIRC). And also the extreme behaviour  
of Bush and the Republicans over the last 8 years. People give Obama  
and his handlers way too much credit, IMHO. Despite outspending  
Hillary Clinton 2 to 1 the fellow came close to losing the whole thing  
last summer. A while ago you posted (I think) that your predominantly  
black neighbourhood celebrated on Obama's victory. Perhaps so, but  
they voted for Clinton in the primaries (but see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/nyregion/16vote.html) 
.


> The Rick Warren and Republican-friendly stuff fits in nicely with  
> Adolph Reed's theory that the Dems aim for a party realignment that  
> would marginalize the far right Republicans into a loony rump  
> formation, while holding onto the liberal wing of the Ds because  
> they're naive, and have nowhere else to go.


But if the [religious] far right are indeed reduced to insignificance  
(similar to the status enjoyed by us in the "far left" today), then  
that would be a positive thing for liberals/progressives, no? Today,  
the move to the centre is a result of the tremendous gravity of the  
far right. When that force is removed, perhaps the left can begin to  
exert some influence?

	--ravi

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