Krugman: Clinton isn’t just an amazing political talent; he has the ability to make wonkery
accessible and compelling.
I’m pretty annoyed with Bill Clinton right now; he’s just spoiled one of my standard joke lines. You see, when giving talks about the economy, I’ve often said that I am have a different take from other pundits, because I know some stuff most political reporters don’t, like … arithmetic. I’ll never be able to use that line again without being accused of stealing it from the Big Dog.
Seriously, that was an awesome speech. Clinton isn’t just an amazing political talent; he has the ability to make wonkery accessible and compelling. Of course, he had one major advantage over the supposed wonks on the other side (still shaking my head over the Ryan implosion), namely, the well-known liberal bias of the facts.
But — you knew there was going to be a but — Clinton did get one thing wrong, which he has persistently gotten wrong for years. He’s stuck on the notion that we have a big structural unemployment problem ...
He’s been saying this for years. But it’s not true — even Republican economists agree. In the context of the convention, this isn’t important. But I hope that if reelected, Obama won’t fall into the structural trap.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/bill-clinton-and-structural-unemployment/
