"It's the Economy, Stupid!" or the US Sixteen Years Later: Less Racist Than in 1992, But Just as Troubled

So Obama won Iowa but Clinton wins New Hampshire? The big question now is, of course, who will best combat whatever Republican gets the nod.

In his The Conscience of a Liberal, Paul Krugman has some interesting things to say about how changing attitudes and demographics could make a big difference in the chances of electing a left of center president. Americans are less racist, he asserts. He also argues that the increasing numbers of Hispanic and Asian voters, combined with the African-American vote could make a “movement conservative” attempt to play the race or fear card much less effective than it has been for the last 30 years. But, as he said in his New York Times column Monday, it’s going to be a tough fight.

Reading between the lines, it appears to me that Krugman thinks Clinton would be better at that than Obama with his hopeful albeit rather undetailed message.
But the fact that Obama won in the rural areas of New Hampshire suggests that Krugman is right in maintaining the nation is becoming less racist. I sure would like to think so.

It’s also telling that New Hampshire’s urban areas went for Clinton. Here it may well be “it’s the economy, stupid” just as it was when Bill Clinton came back to win the state’s primary in 1992.

Memo to political junkies: get "The War Room"--about James Carville and Bill's brilliant campaign--from the video store this weekend.