Paul Krugman has a piece in the Times this morning advocating that President-elect Obama pursue a full-blooded “progressive agenda.”

In opposition to the warnings of the center-right pundits who recommend that Obama go slow and not attempt too much change, Krugman echoes most citizens in our democracy who advise or more accurately demand: Change.

That rabble! And it’s all going so well.

Seriously, in light of the gargantuan problems facing our country and the irrefutable electoral mandate, in which direction do you think Obama will direct his legislative and administrative agendas?

Putting aside the ludicrous notion that we are a center-right country that discredited-by-facts pundits are spewing (and didn’t we just have an election or two these last two years repudiating the thesis?), Obama can be counted on to go for the juggler.

That sage advice decided upon by the American people in the 2008 election is called an “electoral mandate.”

"You want to be greedy when others are fearful. You want to be fearful when others are greedy. It's that simple. ... They're pretty fearful. In fact, in my adult lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen people as fearful economically as they are right now."
- Warren Buffett, October 1, 2008 on the Charlie Rose Show

Why the Charlie Rose show featuring an exclusive conversation with Warren Edward Buffett, regarded as the world's greatest investor and chair of Berkshire Hathaway, is not endlessly broadcast this week is a mystery of the American political culture.

Even as House Republicans scream (at the apparent urging of Newt Gingrich) that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act 2008 is a slippery slope to socialism, Buffett's reasoned defense of the Bush-Paulson-US Senate-Everyone-except-the-GOP-House Members Act assures that not only may the bailout bill produce a net profit (if conceived of in those terms) for American taxpayers, but the fear and loathing epitomized by the House Republicans (though not singled out by Buffett in the interview) is ludicrously removed from reality.

As the economy worsens, more and more key players are getting on board with the idea of a second economic recovery package. But not everyone's where we need them to be to get something done in time to matter. For example Rep. David Obey (D-WI), powerful chairman of the Appropriations Committee free associated to Congress Daily (subscription only) and revealed that he doesn't quite get how urgent doing something to stave off this recession is:

"People use a kinds of terminology; I don't care if you call it a second supplemental or a second economic [stimulus] package -- to me there are all kinds of things that we need domestically -- but we need finish this job [war supplemental] before we can start thinking about the next one"

This pains me. Not only are House Democrats punting on telecom immunity, they're putting war spending ahead of domestic spending.