Paul Krugman’s all wrapped up around an ad from the Obama campaign:
I did not say that the Clinton proposal would increase oil industry profits. If the ad implies that I did, it should be retracted.
I beg to differ.
The ad in question (you can see it here) references the NYTimes on April 28 — and although the very sensitive economist isn’t mentioned in the ad, Krugman did indeed run a piece about the gas tax proposal on that date. However, he was slamming McCain that time, not Hillary.
It seems to have been the next day — April 29th — that Krugman slipped up and criticised his favored horse in the race (my emphasis):
Is the supply of gasoline really fixed? For this coming summer, it is. Refineries normally run flat out in the summer, the season of peak driving. Any elasticity in the supply comes earlier in the year, when refiners decide how much to put in inventories. The McCain/Clinton gas tax proposal comes too late for that. So it’s Econ 101: the tax cut really goes to the oil companies.
So… it seems the Obama campaign has committed a gross error.
Not.
It is interesting though, isn’t it, that Sen. Obama once proposed a similar gas tax holiday in Illinois? Read the Salon article here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/05/06/gas_tax/print.html
Unless, of course, you read the sentence following what you quoted, in which case Krugman’s point is completely clear: “The Clinton twist is that she proposes paying for the revenue loss with an excess profits tax on oil companies. In one pocket, out the other. So it’s pointless, not evil.”
You seem to be hammering Krugman for criticizing the candidate he likes. Don’t we want a political dialog in which people do that instead of simply being cheerleaders for their preferred candidates?
Hi Dorothy — yes, I saw that article in Salon this morning. Found it interesting, actually — particularly that Obama’s saying “it didn’t work” and George Frost at Salon says “it helped”. Helped whom? By how much? For how long? Because obviously it didn’t do much in the long run, which makes me a tad suspicious about the author telling us it did work.
John — Krugman has been off the rails all season about Obama, and this got my goat because he’s acting as if he didn’t criticize her plan at all. And he did. But instead of owning it, he’s attacking Obama. Again.
I think the way he repeated his criticism of the Clinton proposal in two subsequent blog posts was a particular clever way to pretend he never said it!
If more of Obama’s critics were like Krugman – talking about health care policy and polling data rather than Jeremiah Wright and lapel pins and arugula – it would be very good for Obama (and all of us) indeed.