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Old Gray Lady Grabs Obama by the Ear

Krugman, Friedman, Dowd, Rich, editorial board all pile on prez

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 22, 2009 4:06 PM CDT

(Newser) – The Obama administration bore an avalanche of criticism this weekend from the usually friendly New York Times. Influential columnists Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, Thomas Friedman, and Maureen Dowd—plus the paper’s editorial board—all piled on a president who “is increasingly overwhelmed, and not fully appreciative of the building tsunami of populist outrage,” Politico reports.

Rich and Friedman excoriate Barack Obama for his week-kneed reaction to the AIG-bonus furor, while an editorial slams the administration’s security policies as “a bit too close for comfort to the Bush team’s.” Citing Michelle's no-nonsense attitude, Dowd muses on whether “the wrong Obama is in the Oval,” while Nobel laureate Krugman predicted in a blog post that Obama’s coming bank plan will “almost surely” fail. Unlike his predecessor, Politico notes, this president is likely to take such charges seriously.

[Images (5)]

[Quotes (3)]

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is shown at the 10th annual Webby Awards in this June 12, 2006 file photo in New York. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin, File)

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd speaks during a taping of 'Meet the Press' at the NBC studios May 25, 2008 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

President Obama withstood a wave of criticism this weekend emanating from the offices of the normally friendly New York Times. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, is seen after receiving his medal and diploma during the Nobel Prize awards ceremony. (AP Photo/Scanpix Sweden, Fredrik Sandberg)

Security guards watch over the new New York Times building in New York, Thursday, July 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Ed Ou)

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[Larry] Summers is so tone-deaf that he makes Geithner seem like Bobby Kennedy. - Frank Rich

Some of what the public has heard from the Obama administration on issues like state secrets and detainees sounds a bit too close for comfort to the Bush team’s benighted ideas. - the New York Times

The Obama administration is now completely wedded to the idea that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the financial system – that what we’re facing is the equivalent of a run on an essentially sound bank. - Paul Krugman

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Old Gray Lady Grabs Obama by the Ear