Liberal Talk Radio

Somewhere in Princeton, a lightbulb goes off in Paul Krugman’s head, “A hook for my next column!”:

There is not much choice. There is not, because we have screwed up. Not a little but a lot. No country in Europe has screwed up as much as we have. It can be explained. We have obviously lied throughout the past 18 to 24 months. It was perfectly clear that what we were saying was not true.

We are beyond the country’s possibilities to such an extent that we could not conceive earlier that a joint government of the Socialists and the liberals would ever do. And in the meantime we did not actually do anything for four years. Nothing.

You cannot mention any significant government measures that we can be proud of, apart from the fact that in the end we managed to get governance out of the shit. Nothing. If we have to give an account to the country of what we have done in four years, what are we going to say?

*The Prime Minister in question is Ferenc Gyurcsány (pronounced FAIR-entz JOR-chahn-ee); he overtakes Wes Clark in this category** — as in “Oh, man, he totally Gyurcsanied!”

**It’s also possible this was “intentional”*** on Gyurcsany’s part, in which case we reserve the right to adjust the definition at a later date.

***I find this difficult to believe — but if it’s true, the meaning will have to be further adjusted to something along the lines of “a bad miscalculation based on one’s ill-timed and ill-conceived free-swinging manner.”