Krugman's blog: Excess of responsibility

As I read what's happening now, John McCain is denouncing the Paulson plan, while Barack Obama -- out of a sense of responsibility for the financial system -- is only offering cautious criticism.

The Obama people -- and the Congressional Democrats -- do know that the Republicans will run a populist campaign against them on the basis that they voted for a horrible big-government program, don't they?

Unfortunately, they don't. Democrats have a tendency to lose when the Republicans put them in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

If they agree to the bailout plan they'll be attacked as big government by McCain and rebuked by their own angry base. If they don't agree, when things go south again Bush will say that the Democratic congress, by inaction, made the crisis worse.


A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith