Obama's Political Errors

My readers know I'm generally a fan of President Obama, as is Paul Krugman.  But this blog post by Krugman strikes me as just right.  I agree with all four specific mistakes noted in the post, but especially like this one:

Second, the administration made what I continue to believe was the awful decision to pretend that the half-measures it was actually able to get were exactly right, not a penny too small. Would it have made a difference in 2010 if Obama had been able to say to the country, “I asked for more aid to the economy, but those guys blocked it, and that’s why we’re not recovering faster”? I don’t know — but it could hardly have been worse than the position he actually found himself in, which was trying to explain why a policy he insisted had been perfect wasn’t doing the job.

There are two possibilities about what's going on here.  One, the administration really believed that the half-measures it enacted in 2009 were just right, or Two they knew it wasn't enough but decided to pretend otherwise in order to demonstrate confidence so the public would stick with the perception that he's a bridge builder or something. 

Either way it doesn't speak well of Obama.  Academic ecnomists crunching numbers all agreed that the stimulus needed to be much bigger than it was.  It was quite predictable that we'd be here now economically, and leads to egg on Obama's face, whereas he could be saying "I told you so" now. 

I think Obama actually might believe the stuff he campaigned on about bringing people together and changing the culture in Washington.  If he still believes that then the man borders on delusional at this point.  I was talking to a work colleague yesterday about this- he was a Clinton supporter, which I wasn't, but we agreed that if nothing else the Clintons know how to fight.  Obama had better figure that out, or his presidency will end up a failure, and short to boot.