Politics / President Obama Debt Ceiling Deal: Obama 'Surrendered' Krugman: It's a 'disaster' for the country, and shows he'll surrender again By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff Posted Aug 1, 2011 7:24 AM CDT Copied President Barack Obama speaks from the White House briefing room, Sunday, July 31, 2011, in Washington, about a deal being reached to raise the debt limit. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) President Obama caved deeply in a debt deal that made the Republicans big winners, with both Andrew Leonard and Paul Krugman arguing that he "surrendered." Their take: “In the end, President Obama had to admit surrender,” writes Andrew Leonard in Salon, detailing “a smashing victory for the Tea Party and a crushing defeat for Democrats.” In Obama’s defense, he “had to choose between an awful deal or an outright catastrophe.” But he made a mistake in trying to sell it as a compromise. "The president said it was not 'the deal I would have preferred.' He should have said it's a bad deal that does not address the pressing needs of the nation," but one that he had no choice but to sign. In the New York Times, Paul Krugman calls the deal “a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better." But the damage won't be confined to those blows. "There will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will." But the Washington Post doesn't use the S-word. “For a White House eager to improve its standing with centrist independents who have been fleeing Obama, even a losing deal can be a winning strategy,” write Peter Wallsten and David Nakamura. Obama "can declare himself a deficit hawk as he courts the political middle.” (More President Obama stories.) Report an error