Paul Krugman, liberal columnist: ‘You have no idea which party I favor’

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, one of the liberal world’s most-noted columnists, nonetheless claimed that readers typically don’t know who he supports in general elections — Republican versus Democrat — and that he was one of the only writers to maintain a journalistic level of skepticism about President Obama at a time when the left totally embraced him.

Mr. Krugman made the claim during a question-answer discussion with Ezra Klein in a recent interview for Vox. Specifically, Mr. Klein asked Mr. Krugman to give his take on the 2016 election, Mediaite reported.

And Mr. Krugman, a New York Times columnist, answered: “But I don’t think Hillary Clinton is going to try and make it 1999 again. I remember in 2008 — as a Times columnist, I can’t do endorsements, so you have no idea which party I favor in general elections — but I was skeptical of Obama at a time when a lot of people on the left were very, very high on him. I heard a number of people saying, ’Oh, God, if Hillary is elected, she’s going to bring in the old Rubin crowd, people like Larry Summers, to run the economy.’ And then Obama got elected and did exactly that. I think, if anything, he was more conventional on economics that she was.”

Mediaite pointed out one example of when Mr. Krugman’s claim didn’t match logic. During the most recent presidential election, Mr. Krugman opined about Republican Party Mitt Romney’s running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, calling him “a big fraud who doesn’t care at all about fiscal responsibility and whose policy proposals are sloppy as well as dishonest. Of course, this means that he’ll fit in to the Romney campaign just fine,” the news outlet reported.