Campaign Contributions and Regulation

Paul Krugman blogs about financial regulation in the context of political calculation and political contributions, and concludes:

"Of course, when the Times complains about how the administration’s explanation

validates the antiregulatory ethos that led to the crisis and still threatens
to block reform

you could say that this is the whole story of the Obama administration. Name your issue — fiscal policy, Social Security, financial regulation, foreign policy, Guantanamo — and the administration has effectively caved in to the other side’s framing."

This is a troublesome reminder of how regularly I have been disappointed by this centrist president who, while being tarred (I use the word advisedly!) with the "socialist" brush, has time and again compromised by moving from the center --having hardly bothered to argue forcefully his own position-- to the midpoint between the center and the hardest of hard right positions. It is a testament to the racism and xenophobia of the Republican base that the GOP continues to excoriate this moderate. Do they think for a minute that Hilary Clinton or Joe Biden, had they been elected, would have been half as conciliatory, half as willing to abandon their own views in favor of political compromise, as Obama? Ironic that the Right won't take "yes" for an answer.