Krugman makes the "centrist" mistake common to our elite media.

[Stoic]

Now, don't get me wrong. I generally love Paul Krugman but here he has his head hovering near "up your ass-ville".

"Maybe I’m wrong, but my sense is that Jason Furman has become a proxy target for some Obama supporters who, now that the Great Satanness has been defeated, are suddenly starting to have the queasy feeling that their hero might be a bit of a …. centrist."

The false centrism argument can be as follows...

Man A thinks it's okay to shoot yourself in the head with a .45cal gun.
Man B thinks that's a stupid idea.
Man C, the centrist argument, claims a .22 is a "middle" choice so is the best of the two.

A policy, or argument is never better just because it splits the difference between one "extreme" or the other. It should stand on it's own logical feet.