Oh, Paul

Paul Krugman has done it again.

In his latest blog post, the eminent Dr. Krugman highlights something very important about the current politics he often writes about, and his lack of awareness of that very important thing he's highlighting:

"In part this may reflect the Obama administration’s lackluster job so far in getting the word out..."

The "they aren't good at explaining themselves" line is the backbone of what I think of as "sub-clinical Obamaphobia". It demands purposeful ignorance of how everyone has reacted to everything the Administration has ever said about anything, to claim that not saying something about something is the Administration's fault or weakness. The President needed to explain the law better, we're told, forgetting how every explanation ever given has been maligned and misconstrued. He hasn't 'gotten the word out' about successes and accomplishments, almost as if we don't know that every success and accomplishment is deemed a lie and used to undermine his credibility, and all too often in our squishy stupid population, the lies work.

There isn't any limit to how many ways there can be to criticize absolutely everything the Obama administration ever does, but it is never due to any "lackluster job" on the Administration's part. We can lament that the President doesn't talk much more and much more forcefully about the ACA or any other government policy or program or statute or achievement, but we shouldn't pretend there aren't plenty of examples of why he shouldn't among all the examples of when he has. Paul Krugman can assume that 'indoctrinating the public on the government's success' would always come out successfully, but Barack Obama doesn't have that luxury. If there is someone to blame for people at cocktail parties that Dr. Krugman goes to being unaware of the huge success of "Obamacare", in New York state or anywhere else, that would be Dr. Krugman, more than Mr. Obama.