Paul Krugman’s hostility to Obama’s campaign, which makes my opposition seem mild, has now entered the realm of self-parody.  But the reference to “Nixonland” did remind me of Reihan’s first bloggingheads appearance, in which he described Nixon as the “hidden figure behind the 2008 election” and argued that it was actually Hillary Clinton who was the Nixonian in the Democratic race in terms of her economic policy proposals.  Returning to Krugman, it is rather strange for him to complain about a politics characterised by ”racism, misogyny and character assassination” while using this complaint to defend the Clintons.  It’s the last one in particular that is striking, since there are few operations more interested in character assassination than theirs.

Filed under: politics