Krugman: Lessons of 1992 Or Obama's Post-Partisan Narrative

BocaGuy: This is an interesting piece a found on Tennessee Guerilla Women by Paul Krugman. He weigh in on Obama's Naïve blaming the Clinton's for the culture war.

Tennessee Guerilla Women
Monday, January 28, 2008

Paul Krugman weighs in on Obama's wishful post-partisan narrative or the absurd argument that Hillary and Bill Clinton are to blame for the culture war:

It’s starting to feel a bit like 1992 again. A Bush is in the White House, the economy is a mess, and there’s a candidate who, in the view of a number of observers, is running on a message of hope, of moving past partisan differences, that resembles Bill Clinton’s campaign 16 years ago.

Now, I’m not sure that’s a fair characterization of the 1992 Clinton campaign, which had a strong streak of populism, beginning with a speech in which Mr. Clinton described the 1980s as a “gilded age of greed.” Still, to the extent that Barack Obama 2008 does sound like Bill Clinton 1992, here’s my question: Has everyone forgotten what happened after the 1992 election?

Let’s review the sad tale, starting with the politics. Whatever hopes people might have had that Mr. Clinton would usher in a new era of national unity were quickly dashed. Within just a few months the country was wracked by the bitter partisanship Mr. Obama has decried.

This bitter partisanship wasn’t the result of anything the Clintons did. Instead, from Day 1 they faced an all-out assault from conservatives determined to use any means at hand to discredit a Democratic president. . .

[T]hose who don’t want to nominate Hillary Clinton because they don’t want to return to the nastiness of the 1990s . . are deluding themselves. Read more


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