1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Paul Krugman is plain awful

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by hondo, Sep 11, 2011.

  1. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    He was no Abe Beame, that's for sure.
     
  2. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    All you had to do was stand in front of a microphone, talk tough and act compassionate and sympathetic, and you would be immortalized in the days/weeks after 9/11. Really. These politicians aren't stupid. They knew the opportunity to play Pied Piper was there for the taking.

    Example A: Bush approval rating week before 9/11: 51 percent. Week after: 90 percent.

    Does that really make sense? If you wreck the family car and burn down the house, does your approval rating with your parents skyrocket?
     
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    We both know he struck while the iron was hot. He had fame, he had a jingoistic topic and he was out of office. He cashed in on his name. It's not like he stole the money. People bought those books. People paid him those speaker's fees. I have a lot more problem, with the lobbying work Giuliani has done since leaving office, some for some sketchy characters I believe. It's my main problem with politicians, in general, though. They are dirty when in office, by and large, and then when they get out they use their connections to benefit private dirty interests who work with the dirty politicians still in office.
     
  4. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Fair criticism of Bush. Not fair if you throw Giuliani in there. He was putting in long days, and was all over the place, being a very public and reassuring presence. As Frank did, I feel a bit more qualified to talk about his presence, because I live here. He showed a lot personally. I couldn't have held up under that stress and done it as well as he did for several months.
     
  5. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Maybe I'm just a little too cynical, then. I just believe he knew (or was told by his handlers) early on that "this is your ball; run with it and it will take you further than you could have ever dreamed."

    Nothing wrong with that. But when immortality is placed dead center ahead of you, you'll likely work some long hours to achieve it.
     
  6. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Yes. I know. I live here.

    Again, not agreeing or disagreeing, just saying that parsing Krugman on the matter of Kerik and Giuliani comes back to the meaning of "raced."
     
  7. BrianM

    BrianM Member

    I think the timing of Krugman's column was a bit insensitive, and not letting people comment on it was a cowardly move, but in terms of the actual content, I don't think Krugman is wrong in this instance.
     
  8. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    No kidding. It's not like that was a 2,000-word edit.
     
  9. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    'Most anyone who placed themselves in the position to cop the job on the heels of the Dinkins disaster would have looked sensational, by comparison.
     
  10. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    He did try to, but NYC had a law on term limits that prevented him from doing so.

    And that law ended up repealed or something like that for Bloomberg.
     
  11. Just as two quick asides:

    Why not mention Donald Rumsfeld as a counter-weight if you are trying to make a non-partisan point? Rumsfeld has donated all his profits from his memoir Known and Unknown to various charities.

    Rumsfeld is a great man and Krugman couldn't use him as an example without blowing his partisan hackery.

    Turning off the comments was an embarrassment. The NYT gains nothing by employing this guy anymore.
     
  12. CarltonBanks

    CarltonBanks New Member

    Would you like to elaborate?
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page