Krugman exonerates Bush, sort of...

According to Paul Krugman, our economy is bad for many reasons, President Bush is not chief among them, but he and Republicans do have culpability along the way.

Once again we learn from those who know, that our system is set up so that the President and politicians don't have such a large impact on the economy in the short-term, while long term direction and choices really do matter. I support this reality, and wish we would be more honest in our politics.

By huge margins, Americans think the economy is in lousy shape — and they blame President Bush. This fact, more than anything else, makes it hard to see how the Democrats can lose this election

But is the public right to be so disgusted with Mr. Bush’s economic leadership? Not exactly. We really do have a lousy economy, a fact of which Mr. Bush seems spectacularly unaware. But that’s not the same thing as saying that the bad economy is Mr. Bush’s fault.

On the other hand, there’s a certain rough justice in the public’s attitude. Other politicians besides Mr. Bush share the blame for the mess we’re in — but most of them are Republicans.