Newt Gingrich Accuses Obama Of Being A Follower Of Paul Krugman, Which Would Be News To Paul Krugman

Over at The Hill, Christian Heinze snags video of Newt Gingrich lodging his economic complaint against the Obama White House with Fox's Bill O'Reilly. Obama, it seems, is running a "Paul Krugman presidency." Obama, Gingrich protests, "actually believes in" Paul Krugman's "left-wing economic ideas." "The only problem with them," he says, "is that they don't work."

Actually, there's a bigger problem! Here's a pro-tip for Newt Gingrich: If you want to argue that Obama is a dedicated follower of Paul Krugman, it probably shouldn't come hard on the heels of a Paul Krugman column in which Krugman intimates that Obama hasn't listened to a damn thing he's been saying, for years:

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

Start with the economics. We currently have a deeply depressed economy. We will almost certainly continue to have a depressed economy all through next year. And we will probably have a depressed economy through 2013 as well, if not beyond.

The worst thing you can do in these circumstances is slash government spending, since that will depress the economy even further. Pay no attention to those who invoke the confidence fairy, claiming that tough action on the budget will reassure businesses and consumers, leading them to spend more. It doesn’t work that way, a fact confirmed by many studies of the historical record.

Leaving aside who's right on the merits between Krugman's take and Gingrich's own viewpoint, it's painfully clear that the idea that Obama can, in any dimension, be called a Krugmanite is pretty laughable on its face. And all you really need to do to discern that is ... read Paul Krugman's columns! Krugman has repeatedly tried to make Obama go to Keynesian rehab, but the POTUS has said, "No, no, no."

Alternatively, you could have a passing familiarity with a magazine called Newsweek.

I'll make two observations about this. First, when I chided Chris Cillizza for assuming that the debt ceiling deal would allow Obama to brand himself as a "deficit hawk" and forever distance himself from being thought of as a "liberal" or a "socialist," I wasn't just pissing in the wind. Obama's dedication to frustrating Paul Krugman is no impediment to anyone criticizing Obama for being a Krugmanite.

As for Newt Gingrich ... haven't I been alluding to his scatterbrained, aloof-from-reality ways all along? This is a guy who writes a book about how Obama is running a "secular-socialist machine" one minute, and in the next signs up to participate in that secular-socialist machine the next. So what kind of "campaign" is Gingrich running? The answer is that he's running a fake campaign for president, and a real campaign devoted to P.R. for Gingrich, Inc.

DO you miss the fake, cynical, opportunistic candidacy of Donald Trump? Let me introduce you to the fake, cynical, opportunistic candidacy of Newt Gingrich.

At any rate, what does Paul Krugman think of this? TPM's Benjy Sarlin asked him:

"If only!" Krugman replied by email, when asked about Newt's claim by TPM.

Okay, then!

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Comments

[Lagardera]

10:22 AM on 08/26/2011

I wish it were true. I don't think that Obama even reads Krugman. Obama is a victim of his own labyrinth

[collierthanthou]

04:30 PM on 08/06/2011

For all those expert economists out there, this guy has a Nobel prize for it--read what someone who knows thinks...

[AuntInAZ]

04:35 AM on 08/06/2011

Aside from Krugman and whether or not President Obama follows or does not follow him, Newt Gingrich is becoming pathetic. He is so desperate to keep his name out there in the ring that he is saying things that make no sense and are obviously far off the mark. I've never been a fan of Gingrich, but come on, how much more off the mark can he be? Does he or anyone in his campaign research ANYTHING?

[Paul1965]

11:41 AM on 08/05/2011

Newt is funny! First of all Keynesian economics is the only thing that works. A few facts:

-prior to Keynes the business cycles were brutal, causing various depressions and panics up until the big Republican Depression of the 1930s
-when private demand drops, gov't spending is supposed to kick in. Newt should know our economy is largely based on government (military) spending
-tax breaks for the rich won't cause them to invest/hire absent demand, so stimulus should always target the poor and middle class. That's why unemployment provide efficient stimulus, but tax breaks for the rich don't
-As mentioned, Obama hasn't followed Krugman's advice enough, and the economy has suffered

What a sad, angry clown. If only Americans were advanced enough to grok his peculiar genius!

[Samurai Cowboy]

10:50 PM on 08/04/2011

So who do you trust? A Nobel Prize winning economist, or a 3 time filanderer?

[walkerhds]

07:23 AM on 08/07/2011

depends... Newtie is definitely the man to turn to for advice on impressing the campaign bunnies... That's good for local economic consumption, right? :D

[emncaity]

04:41 AM on 08/04/2011

Um, yeah...it is exactly the point that Obama does NOT do what Krugman advocates, and the country is worse off for it.

Not that it'll matter to Republican voters. They can't tell Obama is governing essentially as a Republican with some of the edges rounded off. They actually believe he's a "liberal," and because all measures that make it through the White House must necessarily be no better than half-a$$ed, they're bound to fail at least partially and thereby make Obama and other Democrats look like they can't govern--and right now, they can't, because they insist on governing as half-Republican to all-Republican.

The irony is that it is _Republican_ philosophy, particularly Reaganite Republicanism, that is failing--but tens of millions of voters will vote for exactly the wrong people for the wrong reasons, again.

[Kiffanik]

03:42 PM on 08/03/2011

Awwww Newtie, you just can't seem to get it together. Please allow this farce of a campaign to end its misery and reach its natural end.

[sempdog]

02:28 PM on 08/03/2011

As usual, Dr. Cockamamie puts foot in mouth with Krugman/ Obama connection. He apparently doesn't have the slightest idea what Krugman says about the economy, and that Krugman doesn't agree with Obama on many issues.

[dididangerlove]

01:57 PM on 08/03/2011

The headline is better than the story. There is something about the juxtaposition of Krugman in the photo underneath the headline that's really funny.

[CogitoErgoSum VA]

02:16 PM on 08/03/2011

I agree. The headline with Krugman underneath made me laugh, but the story itself, eh.

[copperkettle3]

01:49 PM on 08/03/2011

Why should we listen to a Nobel Prize winning economist when we can listen to members of the anti intellectual Tea Party?

[emncaity]

04:43 AM on 08/04/2011

Exactly. To be American means to be anti-intellectual, or at least being "real" American does. Which puts us in the company of other famously anti-intellectual nations and movements like...well, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Stalinist Russia, Hitler's Reich, the Taliban, and quite a few others. Yay for us.

[silverball]

12:45 PM on 08/03/2011

....like his fellow phony politician and fellow republi-CON, "the quitter"....at this point in their political careers, they are only in it for the $$$...and therefore have to show up and say silly things just to try and get the public's attention.....it's only about marketing themselves and their brand...they know it, and most of us know it....just a phony phat f**ck........and "the quitter" is just a phony.....

[BillWoodinville]

12:41 PM on 08/03/2011

One of my fondest wishes is that Obama WOULD listen to Krugman. I pay pretty careful attention to all the political back and forth, and for the life of me, I never really hear a cogent rebuttal to any of Krugman's primary points - the main one of which is that we should spend NOW to get us out of this crisis in unemployment, and then plan for a LONG TERM reduction in the debt.

[Ricardo01]

11:44 AM on 08/03/2011

Little Newtie is reduced to spouting any inane thing that pops into his head. This doesn't deserve a story.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

11:37 AM on 08/03/2011

Gingrich Accuses Obama Of Being A Follower Of Paul Krugman -- Which Would Be News To Krugman..............

I THINK THE COUNTRY WOULD BE BETTER SERVED if they'd just put a rifle in Gingrich's hand and send him to Afghanistan.

[AuntInAZ]

04:38 AM on 08/06/2011

Well...no. 'Cause he's such a goof he'd probably get more of our guys killed. But then again maybe he'd be captured and then the Taliban would have to deal with him!

[TYRANNASAURUS]

11:09 AM on 08/06/2011

Then just use him for SHARK FOOD..... LIKE BIN LADEN....

[richard dixon]

11:31 AM on 08/03/2011

SOMETIMES IFEEL LIKE OUR POLITICANS THINK THEY HAVE TENURE. I THINK newt MIGHT FEEL THAT WAY.-----WHAT DO YOU THINK?

[Patchdee]

10:41 PM on 08/05/2011

I agree!