Paul Krugman v. Cokie Roberts

The Washington Monthly has a piece illustrating nicely the analytical brilliance of Paul Krugman and the vacuity of Cokie Roberts, the facile and smug D.C. pundit who was all over the Clintons during the rightwing silly season of Clinton's second term.

In a second piece, Steve Benin notes Krugman's receiving the Nobel Price:

A WELL-DESERVED HONOR FOR PAUL KRUGMAN.... Nearly six years ago, Nicholas Confessore had a fascinating profile of Paul Krugman for the Monthly, noting, among other things, that Krugman has never been part of the in-crowd when it comes to the political establishment. Conservatives had no use for his accuracy and dependence on evidence ...

Watch the video of Roberts and Krugman at This Week included in the exchange captured below in the Monthly.

Today's stupid fake equivalency comes from Cokie Roberts on ABC'S This Week (video). The exchange that follows comes from 3:36 before the end:

Krugman: This is not just about McCain and what he did. The fact of the matter is, for a long time we have had a substantial fraction of the Republican base that just does not regard the idea of Democrats governing as legitimate. Remember the Clinton years. It was craziness, right? They were murderers, they were drug smugglers, and the imminent prospect of what looks like a big Democratic victory would drive a lot of these people crazy even if Sarah Palin wasn't saying these inflammatory things. It's going to be very ugly after the election.

Roberts: On both sides that's true. I think that you've also had a huge number of Democrats who think that the Republicans are illegitimate, and that was particularly true after the 2000 election, and to some degree after 2004. And so you really do have at the core of each party people who are not ready to accept the verdict of the election.

Krugman: I reject the equivalence."