Reply #2: That Wacky, Wacky Krugman

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That Wacky, Wacky Krugman

Posted by Michael Cohen

A few weeks ago I wondered aloud if Barack Obama had stolen Paul Krugman's girlfriend or maybe accidentally run over his dog. At the time, I was joking, but after reading his piece in today's New York Times, I'm really beginning to wonder.

After claiming that there is too much "bitterness" and "venom" in the Democratic race, Krugman makes this astounding argument:

I won’t try for fake evenhandedness here: most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody. I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality. We’ve already had that from the Bush administration — remember Operation Flight Suit? We really don’t want to go there again.

This is just unhinged. Does Paul Krugman really believe that the popular support for Barack Obama is akin to the sycophant-like behavior that we see around President Bush? Does he really think that Obama would pull a stunt like "Mission Accomplished" or even for that matter preemptively attack a foreign nation? Just because Obama supporters passionately want their guy to win does that mean, ipso facto, we're going to have a repeat of the worst excesses of the Bush Administration? It pains me to tar Paul Krugman with this brush, but this the kind of argument I would expect to see coming from Charles Krauthammer!

As for the notion that the Democratic race is filled with venom, as far as I am aware neither candidate has run a single negative TV ad against the other and neither has launched any sort of personal character attack. This has been one very tough fought, but pretty substantive presidential campaign. Indeed, if every campaign was like this, we'd all be much better off.

But what I find most hilarious about Krugman's allegation of the venom supposedly coming from Obama supporters is that he doesn't even bother to point to a single example of this phenomenon, instead highlighting mainstream media attacks against the Clintons and arguing that Obama folks aren't exorcised enough by them. Sheesh! This is just embarrassing.

It's really about time, Paul Krugman went back to talking about economics because when it comes to politics he's starting to sound like a broken record.

Michael Cohen