I am in near-100% agreement with Krugman

… When it comes to matters of the economy.

When it comes to politics, I rarely agree.

His newest article is, as always, interesting.  He praises the choice of the Obama campaign to fight back against the spurious attacks levied upon him by McCain’s campaign and his ‘ambassadors’ (right-leaning blogs, Fox News, conservative journalists, etc.) .  He praises Obama’s campaign for returning attacks on McCain’s personal attributes (fantastic wealth) over policy, joining the battle in the mud for the American presidency.  He also makes a good point in passing about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s origins in extreme wealth, and FDR’s contribution to the working poor.  He makes a fantastic closing point as well, which I will leave to those adventurous link-clickers to discover on their own.

The appeal of Obama, in my mind, was always that he tried to stay above the fray.  I loved that he was accused as being an elitist (if he wants to lead the free world, I hope he thinks he’s better than the average person… I don’t want my President to care that much about American Idol).  I wish he campaigned on the idea that he was an elitist, knew it, embraced it, and wanted to remind everyone else that he was, in fact, much smarter than them.

I believe what makes a candidate a ‘teflon candidate’ is this disdain for the sadly sensational battle for the most capricious voters.  I believe what made Obama so strong in the primary battle is that he had barely veiled contempt for the apparent injection of race into the… err… race, by Bill Clinton, the “We’re Not Even Pretending to Be a News Organization Anymore” attacks on Obama’s Muslim name and terrorist-fist-bumping ways, and (for the most part, though he did breakdown a bit on this issue) his lack of appropriate flag-themed adornments.

I think if Obama fully embraces these lines of attack, against McCain’s wealth, or the source of that wealth, or his second marriage, or the circumstances that led to that second marriage, and other 30-year-old tales, than he loses the luster and (for the lack of a better word), ‘magic’, that has surrounded his campaign and person up to that point.

And as someone who was supporting John Edwards all along, and did not see the appeal of Barack Obama except as the First Black President (the FBP, for short), I think magic is all he has going for him.  Without the aura of contempt for the trivialities of the campaign, I believe John McCain can compete even with the state of the economy being what it is (after all, he’s a Maverick with a capital ‘M’, so its not his fault despite his 21 years in the senate), and even without the enthusiastic support of the American Organized Christian Community (it doesn’t matter how hard you press the McCain button, only that you show up and press it.  And with the taste of power the AOCC has from 2000 and 2004, I refuse to believe they’ll sit out).

… and the cow goes moo