Nailing the Latest Blowheart Republican Presidential Candidate

Here is a post by Paul Krugman on his NY Times blog that nails Tim Pawlenty for competing with Sarah Palin to "Ignoramus of the Year" award:

Why I Don’t Believe in the American People

Tim Pawlenty — who has turned out to be a much bigger fool than I or, I think, anyone imagined — replies to criticism of his claim that he can get 10 years of GDP growth at 5 percent:

Obama’s economic team doesn’t have a plan, so their spokespeople attack ours. The idea that they don’t believe in the American people enough to say that we can grow the economy at 5% GDP really says everything. You have to wonder if in fact Obama’s grand plan is that we don’t grow at all — and if so — he and the central planners are doing a great job of that.

Well, here are 10-year growth rates starting with 1929-39:

Click to Enlarge
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Data here.

Except for the big jump from the depths of the Great Depression to the height of World War II, we have never had a decade of growth at 5%.

What’s also notable in this figure is the invisibility of all the supposed economic miracles we hear about. Saint Reagan was supposed to have revitalized the economy; can’t see it here. All you can really see is that the 60s were very good, and the recent slump has been very, very bad.

Mussolini was a strutting buffoon. Hitler was a mean calculating buffoon. Huey Long was a blowheart and a liar. Joe McCarthy was an alcoholic and a mean SOB. Why do people fall for these crazy characters?