Paul Krugman rides again. The New York Times columnist published a column Monday characterizing various Presidential candidates’ policy proposals – or lack thereof. The subtitle in fact is “Who has it, who doesn’t.”
Who doesn’t? According to Mr. Krugman “The entire GOP field…fails the substance test”.
Mr. Krugman continues, “There is, by contrast, a lot of substance on the Democratic side, with John Edwards forcing the pace. Most notably, in February, Mr. Edwards transformed the whole health care debate with a plan that offers a politically and fiscally plausible path to universal health insurance.”
“Whatever the fate of the Edwards candidacy, Mr. Edwards will deserve a lot of the credit if and when we do get universal health care in this country.”
“Mr. Edwards has also offered a detailed, sensible plan for tax reform, and some serious antipoverty initiatives.”
His take on Barrack Obama borders on faint praise – a bit better I think, but he’s quite guarded about Ms. Clinton. He doesn’t trust her lack of specificity.
“And even if you believe Mrs. Clinton’s contention that her positions could never be influenced by lobbyists’ money – a remark that drew boos and hisses from the (YearlyKos) Chicago crowd – there’s reason to worry about the big contributions she receives from the insurance and drug industries. Are they simply betting on the front-runner, or are they also backing Democratic candidate least likely to hurt their profits?”
This is a nice essay highlighting the difference between policy and broad themes, and which of these approaches has practical value. If you haven’t already read Paul Krugman’s review of the Edwards health plan, you should. I believe it is archived on the main Edwards website.
We do have friends in the Main Stream Media, and we need to help amplify their voices.
Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Don Wheeler
Monday, August 6, 2007
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1 comments:
Great point about the substance of the candidates. A friend who's involved with labor unions was telling me how the union folks individually want to back Edwards because they think he has the plans and the vision to change things. But, they're going to throw their muscle behind a candidate they think can win...Clinton. I think that's a shame.
By the way, nice to see a progressive blogger in the South Bend area. My family is from there but I haven't lived there in almost twenty years.
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