Reply #8: No, Paul Krugman has never liked Obama's healthcare plan.

[BzaDem]

Healthcare happens to be an issue near and dear to Krugman's heart. He initially supported Edwards in the primaries because of his healthcare plan. Then he leaned towards Hillary, because Hillary's plan was very close to Edwards' plan. Krugman does not believe that the healthcare issue will be solved until we actually have universal healthcare, and Obama's plan from day one allowed the young and healthy to not have health insurance, increasing costs for everyone else.

Krugman also did not believe in the idea of "postpartisanship" that Obama kept talking about. As much as Hillary's "the skies will open, angels will be singing, and everything will be perfect" speech was derided by DUers at the time, it is obvious now (and back then to Krugman) that "postpartisanship" relies on Republican good will that just isn't there. 0 republicans in the House voted for the stimulus, and just 3 in the Senate, despite large concessions that probably damaged the bill's effectiveness.

I think most on DU agreed with Krugman on these two particular issues -- they wanted a system closer to universal healthcare, and they thought the idea of "postpartisanship" was silly. But they still liked Obama overall much better than Hillary (personally and based on other policy views), so they supported him. Krugman, on the other hand, realized that Obama's views on two issues most important to him did not conform to his own, and (gasp!) decided that he would support someone who's ideas he did support. This is a far cry from hating Obama personally.