Forget Clark, let’s draft Paul Krugman!
I’ve been joking with some of my friends that we should start a movement to draft NYT columnist Paul Krugman to run in the 2004 presidential elections. I don’t really expect anyone to take the proposal seriously, but I really do like what Krugman has been saying about the Bush administration. Most of what he has said or written since Bush took office has been right on target. If I had it in my power to do so, I would probably make Krugman’s new book, The Great Unraveling, required reading for everyone who plans to vote in 2004.
CalPundit has an interview with Krugman that shows why this economics professor from Princeton is so worried about leaving the future of our country in the hands of the Bush administration. I share this man’s fears.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview that I particularly enjoyed:
Reagan lied a little bit, and his policies were often crazy, but they wouldn’t do 2 -1 = 4. They’d say, if we have our tax cut we’ll have this wonderful supply side thing and the economy will boom and it will pay for itself, which was a crazy theory, but it wasn’t a blatant lie about the actual content of the policy.
Bush says, I’ve got a tax cut that’s aimed at working people, ordinary working people, and then you just take a look at it and discover that most of it’s coming from elimination of the estate tax and a cut in the top bracket, so it’s heavily tilted toward just a handful of people at the top. It’s just a flat lie about what the tax cut is.
So this is different, this is really more extreme. We’re not talking about disagreements about policy at this point, we’re talking about people who insist that things that are flatly not true are true, that black is white, up is down.
Actually, I find it pretty amazing how the current president has retroactively increased my enthusiasm for past presidents that I didn’t particularly like during their terms. I didn’t care much for Reagan or the first president Bush, but I am forced into the realization that, when compared to the current president, these two men were splendid presidents.
In spite of the problems with Amazon.co.jp I described earlier, I now have a copy of The Great Unraveling waiting on my bookshelf. I have a few other books that I have obligations to finish first, but I can’t wait to get back to this one.
I can see that this is going to be a good year for liberal authors. Be sure to make room for Krugman on your reading list. If I have my way about it, this guy will be president some day.
