Krugman Nails the Passive Obama

There has been a distinct failure of leadership by the "change you can believe in" Obama. Krugman takes the Congress to task in his latest post on his NY Times blog. Here's the key bit:

Now, part of Democrats’ problem since Tuesday’s special election has been that they have been waiting in vain for leadership from the White House, where Mr. Obama has conspicuously failed to rise to the occasion.

But members of Congress, who were sent to Washington to serve the public, don’t have the right to hide behind the president’s passivity.

Bear in mind that the horrors of health insurance — outrageous premiums, coverage denied to those who need it most and dropped when you actually get sick — will get only worse if reform fails, and insurance companies know that they’re off the hook. And voters will blame politicians who, when they had a chance to do something, made excuses instead.

Ladies and gentlemen, the nation is waiting. Stop whining, and do what needs to be done.

I've given up on Obama. He has failed. It is a waste of time to hope that Obama can "redeem" himself. Sure, he's making some belated gestures about the Wall Street banks, but that is a year late. His presidency has failed. The American people need to focus on Congress, bolstering it with more and better Democrats in 2010, and then elect a new and better Democrat for president in 2012.

That's the sad fact. The Great Recession is going to last 2 or 3 years longer than it should because of Obama's dilly dallying. But above all, remember that there wouldn't be a Great Recession if Bush's Republicans hadn't gutted the government in favour of de-regulation and big tax cuts for the rich.