Krugman: Style, Substance, and The Donald
Paul Krugman, the best political and economic commentator of our time, nails it again.
Just about the entire political commentariat has been caught completely flatfooted by Donald Trumps durable front-runner status; he was supposed to collapse after being nasty to St. John McCain, but nothing of the sort happened.
So now the conventional wisdom is that were witnessing a temporary triumph of style over substance; Republican voters like Trumps bluster, and havent (yet) realized that he isnt making sense.
But if you ask me, the people who are really mistaking style for substance are the pundits. Its true that Trump isnt making sense but neither are the mainstream contenders for the GOP nomination.
On economics, both Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are into deep voodoo. Bush takes his experience of presiding over a giant housing bubble in his state, as proof that he can double Americas underlying growth rate. Walker is Brownback-light: his governorship on Wisconsin was premised on the proposition that tax cuts, spending cuts, and union-bashing can create an economic miracle, but the reality is budget deficits and subpar growth, lagging in particular the performance of neighboring Minnesota.
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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/style-substance-and-the-donald/