Saturday, February 07, 2009

Krugman on negotiations

Appeasing the centrists: "[Obama] made preemptive concessions, only to find the centrists demanding another pound of flesh as proof of their centrist power."

Good point. I wish I'd thought of that... a couple of years ago.

5 comments:

  1. This is such a basic principle of negotiation, they teach it in first-year law-school and business-school practicums. You don't make concessions in the expectation that you will receive something in return in the future as a matter of equity or gratefulness. You make concessions only in exchange for an enforceable promise of compensation. Having developed in the Chicago school of politics, I am surprised that Obama is failing to adhere to this principle.

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  2. Am I to understand that there are people who think Obama is left of what is traditionally called center, and that he's making concessions farther to the right?

    Or is it that "center" keeps sliding as the government slowly gets pulled farther and farther right?

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  3. Am I to understand that there are people who think Obama is left of what is traditionally called center, and that he's making concessions farther to the right?

    By definition, the "center" is what Obama is to the left of. I don't think it's what's traditionally been called the "center"; Obama is, after all, slightly to the right of Richard Nixon.

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  4. Comrade: One might believe that Obama is naive, uneducated or stupid. One might alternatively believe that Obama is himself delivering on enforceable promises he made to secure the office of President.

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  5. Well Larry, you got a hearty gut laugh out of me with that answer.

    ReplyDelete

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