It seems New York Times health care columnist Paul Krugman has taken a President’s Day vacation from predictable Hillary-coddling; in today’s column, he criticizes Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for not caring about poverty as much as John Edwards fake-cared. Krugman’s so-so fare today allows “lightning rod conservative” columnist Bill Kristol to dazzle in his stead, like in the good old days. MORE »

Hillary’s going to be swept in Maryland, DC and Virginia today, then she is going to lose Wisconsin and Hawaii next week. So here’s the Clinton campaign’s goal for the month of February: Don’t lose Wisconsin by very much! She’s running this new ad in the… cheese state… and is utilizing everyone’s favorite Obama hater, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, to “pimp out” her plan. [YouTube]

Indeed, that is the essence of a Paul Krugman column in everyone’s favorite New York Times these days: Clinton rules, as does her health care package with mandates that keep everyone’s premiums to a percentage of their income!!! Hope on that, Barry. Anyway, “rules” is actually meant in the “regulations” sense, not the schoolboy taunting way. Let’s see what Obama’s #1 hater has to say! MORE »

Mondays sure are exciting in the New York Times op-ed pages these days. Whose column makes a better argument for the destruction of the NYT in toto: Bill Kristol’s or Paul Krugman’s? While last week’s prize went to Krugman, Kristol retakes his rightful throne this week as the worst columnist on the planet, Earth. MORE »

That honor would go to Paul Krugman, the liberal economist! While Kristol’s column was a vague recap of some already well-aired “spins” on Obama’s big South Carolina win, it wasn’t his usual manic fascism, but still had lots of typos. It was just phoned in. Krugman, on the other hand, offers an interesting new angle to his famous Clinton obsession: Barry’s campaign in 2008 is the exact same thing as Clinton’s in 1992, and look how much shit Clinton had to eat when he took over! In other words, this fairy Obama is doomed for failure like Clinton, whose wife we should now elect. MORE »

*HOW MUCH DID THEY PAY FOR THAT ONE:* The kids at Radar hear that the New York Times will endorse Hillary Clinton for president in a weekend editorial. Somewhere Paul Krugman is skipping and singing his favorite gleeful showtunes, while Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd are moving to France in whiny sobs. [Radar]

• Krugman: Boilerplate GOP-bashing becomes Talking Heads homage. (’Now, as they survey the wreckage of their cause, conservatives may ask themselves: “Well, how did we get here?” They may tell themselves: “This is not my beautiful Right.” They may ask themselves: “My God, what have we done?”‘)

• The Note: Eight paragraphs of inexplicable and terrible Springsteen gags. (”Former senator Fred Thompson knows no brilliant disguise will compensate for a bad debate tomorrow”)

Oy. MORE »