Obama, Stop Snubbing Progressives

President Obama is having well-documented troubles with progressives, partly because their "sky-high expectations" have collided with political reality, writes Paul Krugman. But the president deserves a fair share of the scorn because of his "consistent snubbing of those who made him what he is." The latest: his waffling on whether to name Elizabeth Warren head of the new consumer protection agency.

This should be a no-brainer, writes Krugman in the New York Times. She's the perfect high-profile advocate, and the agency is largely her creation. Republicans might filibuster, "but that’s a fight the administration should welcome," he writes. Instead, Obama is so "wrapped up in his dream of transcending partisanship" that we might end up with a weak-willed no-name technocrat. Krugman isn't calling on progressives to bail on Obama, but he warns that the president "can’t expect strong support from people his administration keeps ignoring and insulting."