Krugman on the Republican Convention

from Paul Krugman



August 30, 2012, 7:13 am1 Comment

Wibbly-wobbly

It wasn’t the biggest thing in Paul Ryan’s speech, but many people are wondering why Ryan keeps using the closed Janesville GM plant to illustrate the failure of Obama’s policy — when the plant actually closed under George W. Bush.



One possibility is that the Serious, Honest Conservative is actually unserious and breathtakingly dishonest. Alternatively, he’s branched out from Ayn Rand, and is now also listening to this guy:





People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually — from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint — it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly… timey-wimey… stuff.



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August 29, 2012, 5:36 pm45 Comments

The Snooker Factor

Kudos to William Saletan for admitting that Paul Ryan snookered him:



I hate to admit it, but Krugman nailed me on this one. I was looking for Mr. Right—a fact-based, sensible fiscal conservative—and I tried to shoehorn you into that role.



The key thing to understand it that Ryan very deliberately played into that fantasy; he’s not just a flim-flam man (and note the date on that column — it has always been obvious if you were willing to see), he’s someone cynically playing on the goodwill of self-proclaimed centrists.



Now, when will the various Pete Peterson fronts that gave him an award make a similar admission?



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August 29, 2012, 9:40 am108 Comments

Unconventional

No, I didn’t watch it. In the immortal words of Barbara Bush, why should I waste my beautiful mind on that?



Still, I get the essence. The GOP campaign is based on five main themes, three negative and two positive.



Negative:



The claim that Obama denigrated businessmen, saying that they didn’t build their own firms — which isn’t true.



The claim that Obama has gutted Medicare to pay for the expansion of health insurance — which isn’t true.



The claim that Obama has eliminated the work requirement for welfare — which isn’t true.



Positive:



The claim that Ryan has a plan to balance the budget — which isn’t true.



The claim that Romney has a plan for economic recovery — which isn’t true. (The Economist: “The Romney Programme for Economic Recovery, Growth and Jobs” is like “Fifty Shades of Grey” without the sex).