An interesting article from TAP Grand Poobah Bob Kuttner defending Obama's recent speech and praising its tying of the mortgage crisis to larger structural problems. One thing to add is that crucial to Krugman's critique of Obama is that the precise details of the candidate's policy proposals (as opposed to their general tenor) is more important than the candidate's records. At least in a non-parliamentary system, this is a highly problematic assumption, and Obama's record is on balance somewhat more progressive than Clinton's. Moreover, the most crucial variable in determining what happens to ambitious policy proposals is the number of Democratic votes in the Senate, and Obama is likely to have longer coattails in marginal races. Even on the issue -- health care -- where Clinton has a clearly superior proposal, I doubt that on balance Clinton is more likely to get reform passed, or that a bill that passed under her watch would be significantly more progressive. --Scott Lemieux
