Krugman's strategery

Yglesias tracks Krugman's latest efforts to discredit Barack Obama. In fact, lately Krugman has been on Obama's case with an intensity he usually reserves for George Bush. Why the antipathy toward a fellow liberal Democrat, especially when the Republican alternatives are so awful? Does Krugman really believe Obama is some sort of Reaganite in disguise?

No, of course not. The real reason Krugman is going all-out against Obama is simple: he's just applying his pet theory of American politics. For a while now, Krugman's been going around saying that - A-HA!! - American politics is all about race. Why, the master economist asks, would poor white Americans not vote for the Democrats, who've promised to help the poor? Why would they not obey their self-interest? It must be race. The poor whites don't want the government benefits going to the poor blacks. This explains why America has never let itself develop a welfare state along the lines of more ethnically homogeneous countries like Sweden.

So Krugman believes that America will never elect Obama because Barack is black. So he's going all-out to discredit the Democrat he considers inherently unelectable.