Portrait of Krugman

I really enjoy Paul Krugman's writings. He is a very sharp cookie and his politics lines up with mine.

Here's a portrait of Krugman from the New Yorker:

... during the primary campaign Krugman was very critical of Barack Obama. He was critical chiefly because, of the three main candidates, Obama seemed to him the most conservative (his health plan, for instance, didn’t mandate universal coverage), but it wasn’t just his policies that Krugman objected to. He couldn’t stand all the feel-good stuff about hope and dialogue and reconciliation. He hated that Obama was out there saying nice things about Reagan when what Democrats needed to do most was debunk the persistent myth that Reaganomics had been good for America. He thought Obama was completely wrong to believe that the country’s problems were due largely to partisan nastiness, and ridiculously naïve to imagine that he could bring together Republicans and insurance companies to reform health care. “Anyone who thinks that the next president can achieve real change without bitter confrontation is living in a fantasy world,” he wrote in 2007. Krugman supported John Edwards, for his emphasis on poverty, for his ambitious health-care plan, and for his rough talk about attacking the interests of the wealthy. After Edwards dropped out, he supported Hillary Clinton. She wasn’t as left as Edwards was, but at least she was a fighter, and she obviously had no illusions about bipartisan harmony.

I thought Roberts was the best candidate because his policies were tilted the most toward the poor. He got trounced early, but in retrospect this was good because his presidency would have Clinton's look like a walk in the park. The Republicans would have gone crazy with his sex affair with baby. Clinton had sex affairs, but no baby and less obvious lies (oh, except for the "I didn't not have 'sex' with that woman!" statement under oath... right up there with his claims about "never inhaling" the marajuana in his youth).

Krugman went to Clinton as the second choice and I felt Obama was the better choice because I hate the tendency in the US to create "royal families" with a sense that they are 'owed' senatorships or presidency (e.g. the Kennedy clan or Bush 43 taking the mantle from Bush 41).

Read the article. It is full of interesting tidbits. I love the bit about Krugman's "political awakening" when he was shocked at Bush 43's outright lies. You need to read this to understand how Krugman went from blinkered academic to a voice at the barricades.