"Let's Take a Moment to Talk About the Current Wave of Obama-Bashing"

"Am I damning with faint praise? Not at all. This is what a successful presidency looks like. No president gets to do everything his supporters expected him to. FDR left behind a reformed nation, but one in which the wealthy retained a lot of power and privilege. On the other side, for all his anti-government rhetoric, Reagan left the core institutions of the New Deal and the Great Society in place. I don't care about the fact that Obama hasn't lived up to the golden dreams of 2008, and I care even less about his approval rating. I do care that he has, when all is said and done, achieved a lot. That is, as Joe Biden didn't quite say, a big deal."


In Rolling Stone, Paul Krugman defends President Obama.


Francis Wilkinson at the Washington Monthly argues that Obama has led the Democrats politically to triumph.


Danny Vinick looks at the economy in The New Republic.


And Thomas Frank in Salon criticizes Krugman's article.