Krugman is right: Dems are thinking a lot harder than Reps on domestic oil

Hat tip to Conservative Edge for pointing out Paul Krugman's frustrated essay in the NY Times...

The reason he's correct: It's a no-brainer, so one doesn't have to think very hard! Listening to the Democratic politicians do mental gymnastics to defend the indefensible (both politically AND economically!)-- now that takes difficult and creative thinking. Very impressive! Sad and stupid-- but quite impressive in its way. I just hope they can apply their better-developed thinking skills in a more constructive way in the future.

So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg....

Uhh, Paul, that's how markets-- in particular, futures markets-- work.

Then, Paul compares demand and supply to the War in Iraq! Wow, what a leap. Here, Krugman displays his own amazing thinking skills.

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.

Remember how the Iraq war was sold....