Monday, January 28, 2008
(6:01 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
The Question of Paul Krugman
During the Bush years, Paul Krugman has been one of the most prominent voices of reason in the mainstream media -- no one in a similar position has been so consistent in pointing out the sheer insanity of the Bush administration. Now that he's talking about the Democratic primary, however, I'm just not sure what to make of him. On the one hand, he's right, in my view, to be angry at Obama for coopting right-wing talking points. On the other hand, as Yglesias points out, he's remarkably willing to forgive Clinton for supporting the Iraq War, which he has devoted a considerable number of his columns to denouncing in great detail.All along, people have been cautioning that Krugman isn't as left-wing as he may seem in the mainstream context -- see, for instance, John Emerson's claim that Krugman is not even center-left, but center-center. Perhaps what passed as radical leftism was nothing more than a case of being more of a partisan Democrat than any actual existing Democrat -- something that, in itself, is pretty radical in our context.
