It has been surprising and disappointing to read Paul krugman's political columns for quite some time. In his defense of Hillary Clinton, he has unfortunately written a few columns pretty much based on Clinton talking points.
The one today was particularly disturbing. He wrings his hands over "race and class", while at the same time omitting the person who kept stoking the fires of race and class: Hillary Clinton herself.
He writes that "more tirades from Obama supporters against Mrs. Clinton are not the answer". Huh? Where are these tirades? The tirade that everyone heard was delivered to USA Today by Mrs. Clinton.
Paul Krugman makes no mention of it.
Read the Op-Ed in today's New York Times and my Letter to the Editor,
cc'd to Mr. Krugman http://www.nytimes.com/...
To the Editor:
Mr. Krugman should be thinking differently about November. In his focus on "race and class", he intensifies the very issue that the Democrats should be avoiding if they want to win in November. By now, most Democrats are so weary of the assertion, undocumented, that Krugman offers: Obama's "white support continues to be concentrated among the highly educated". Does Mr. Krugman know how many Clinton supporters are white and highly educated (besides himself)? Or, how many Clinton supporters are extremely wealthy as opposed to Obama supporters? This slice-and-dice game can be employed to benefit any one candidate's personal attack agenda.
To suggest that Obama has only a "deep but narrow base consisting of African-Americans and highly educated whites" is simply not true. What about all those clear victories in largely white states? Nor is it truthful to state that he still has significant problems with working-class whites. In fact, Obama recently gained in those categories. In Indiana, he split the working-class vote and has been running even with independents. .
Mr. Krugman would do better to turn his attention to the big elephant in the room: Clinton's racially-charged statements. He omits the latest one completely--- that the white working-class and the white non-college folks who vote in a Democratic primary will flee Obama to support John McCain in the general election: therefore, she is the better candidate. Where's the logic and the proof to support this? It simply doesn't exist. It's the talk of a campaign that has turned to last-minute desperation.