Paul Krugman on Rick Perry’s threat to Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, in a piece titled “Ignorance, Paranoia, and Implied Violence”:
“Actually, what Perry said is even worse than most writing on it has suggested. Yes, he’s showing ignorance of the basics of monetary policy; yes, he appears to have implicitly threatened violence against my former department head. (Incidentally, threats of that kind are a long-standing feature of modern GOP rhetoric; as early as 1993, Republican Senators would joke about what might happen to Bill Clinton if he visited their states, and the Broders of the world pretended not to notice).
But somehow everyone I’ve read seems to miss the bit about Bernanke playing politics — implying that anything he does would be in the interests of helping Obama get reelected.
That’s a hell of an accusation to make — especially when you bear in mind that Bernanke was a Bush appointee. But this is apparently how people like Perry think.
After this, I suspect that Perry is a shoo-in for the nomination.”
