Krugman Making Sense on Trump and the Rest of the Pack

This is from a Paul Krugman post, edited to provide only accurate analysis and cutting out the Krugman nonsense (which is as bad as the Republican nonsense he decries.)

Just about the entire political commentariat has been caught completely flatfooted by Donald Trump’s 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 we’re witnessing a temporary triumph of style over substance; Republican voters like Trump’s bluster, and haven’t (yet) realized that he isn’t making sense.

But if you ask me, the people who are really mistaking style for substance are the pundits. It’s true that Trump isn’t 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 America’s underlying growth rate...
Is Trump any worse on economics than these guys?..

His immigration proposals are extreme; but as Greg Sargent points out, the Republican base agrees with him,..

So why is Trump regarded as ludicrous, while Bush and Walker are serious? Again, on the substance they’re all ludicrous; but pundits are taken in by the sober-sounding personal style of the runners-up, while voters apparently are not.

Just to be clear, I’m not denying that Trump is a clown, an absurd figure. But given his party’s field, that’s not a distinctive judgment.

 - RW