Paul Krugman Nails It

Krugman's entire op/ed about Boehner's departure is worth a read, but here are the high points:

In 2008 a stimulus plan passed Congress with bipartisan support, and the case for a further stimulus in 2009 was overwhelming. But with a Democrat in the White House, Mr. Boehner demanded that policy go in the opposite direction, declaring that “American families are tightening their belts. But they don’t see government tightening its belt.” And he called for government to “go on a diet.”

This was know-nothing economics, and incredibly irresponsible at a time of crisis; not long ago it would have been hard to imagine a major political figure making such a statement. Did Mr. Boehner actually believe what he was saying? Was he just against anything Mr. Obama was for? Or was he engaged in deliberate sabotage, trying to block measures that would help the economy because a bad economy would be good for Republican electoral prospects?

Anyone familiar with this blog knows how I feel on this question: I have no doubt that Boehner and the GOP were deliberately trying to sabotage Obama's presidency, even though this would cause great damage to the country and even though GOP policies are what caused the Great Bush/Cheney Recession in the first place. But as Krugman notes, the GOP strategy against Obama failed miserably:

[D]espite all Mr. Boehner’s efforts to bring him down, Mr. Obama is looking more and more like a highly successful president. For the base, which has never considered Mr. Obama legitimate — polling suggests that many Republicans believe that he wasn't even born here — this is a nightmare. And all too many ambitious Republican politicians are willing to tell the base that it’s Mr. Boehner’s fault, that he just didn’t try blackmail hard enough.

This is nonsense, of course. In fact, the controversy over Planned Parenthood that probably triggered the Boehner exit — shut down the government in response to obviously doctored videos? — might have been custom-designed to illustrate just how crazy the G.O.P.’s extremists have become, how unrealistic they are about what confrontational politics can accomplish.

Krugman ends his piece by stating:  "[D]on’t cry for (or with) Mr. Boehner; cry for America, which must find a way to live with a G.O.P. gone mad."  Hopefully, this insanity to which Krugman refers will soon prove fatal to the Republican Party and we won't have to put up with this crap too much longer.

I'll end my post with this thought:  If members of the GOP think this form of confrontational politics will work against Obama in the final sixteen months of his presidency, then they truly are delusional.  This is because the President gives less than a shit about what Republicans are doing these days, and as a result, Obama is enjoying a highly successful 2015.