Ezra Klein wonders why the left is claiming to be "disappointed" with Obama, rather than just disagreeing. After all, isn't it obvious that someone who hires Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman to be their economic advisors during the campaign is going to appoint Larry Summers to a high economic position as President?
Unusually for Ezra, it seems like he's missing the structural forces at work. Lefty bloggers are trying to persuade their readers. And while it may be obvious to me and him that Austan Goolsbee is a U. of C. centrist, it's pretty hard to persuade Joe Q. Blogreader of that. After all, nobody's ever heard of Austan Goolsbee, the politics of the U. of C. econ department aren't exactly watercooler fodder, and his ideological predisposition is far from obvious. And, after the 2000 and 2004 debacles, any subtle complaints about economic advisors would quickly be shouted down as trashing the nominee we all need to rally behind.
By contrast, Larry Summers, Hillary Clinton, and "a Bush-appointed Republican" are all household names. You can get people upset about them in a way you couldn't during the campaign. And so, naturally, the audience for liberal blogs which was happy about Obama then, but unhappy about him now, is going to be disappointed. This isn't because no-one-could-have-expected-it; it's because they were structurally prevented from expecting it. No wonder they're disappointed.
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