Alert reader PN catches Paul Krugman in what appears to be a grievous error.

Krugman: "When [Fred Thompson] ran for the Senate, however, his campaign reinvented him as a good old boy: it leased a used red pickup truck for him to drive, dressed up in jeans and a work shirt, with a can of Red Man chewing tobacco on the front seat." (emphasis mine)

Red Man comes in pouches.

Doesn't change Krugman's point about authenticity narratives and candidates (nothing new, actually), but funny nonetheless.

Comments

[postroad]

there you go again. One slip, a minor mistake, and we are to discount the thrust of what Krugman says? He is on target and finingt this minor piece of nonsense is akin to the places that note "wrong" things in films...big deal.

[TierFlyer]

How do you lease a used pickup truck?

And why not just buy the dang thing - they're not all that expensive. And handy. With or without the astroturf in back.

-TF

[gm]

Did he get a $ 400 dollar haircut and then go back to his 30,000 square foot mansion? Just wondering.

[paul]

"One slip, a minor mistake, and we are to discount the thrust of what Krugman says?"

Face it, krugman lives in a glass house with his glass ego. Apparently so do his minions.

Still waiting for his soc sec fix.

[Gekkobear]

"we are to discount the thrust of what Krugman says?"

Yep, which explains why we end with...

"Doesn't change Krugman's point about authenticity narratives and candidates (nothing new, actually), but funny nonetheless."

Is that "discount[ing] the thrust" of Krugman's point?

Your post is confusing, complaining about arguments that weren't made. Could you possibly refer to the post here, instead of the one in your head?

[Ishmael]

Prince Albert comes in a can, Red Man in a pouch. Let them both out, I say.

[JoeS]

Krugman is a poser. Trying to act like he has two.

He, Teddy, Hillary, and John Edwards ($55k lecture on poverty at a university) belong to each other. Limousine liberals.

"Authentic" Asskissers

[Cara Michele]

The Krugman column at the Times is behind a pay wall. The full text is on some blogs, though. Here's a link.

P.S. Red Man is gross. Can, pouch, whatever. But Fred Thompson is OK with me.

P.P.S. How do you know so much about chewing tobacco, Ed? Ewww... ;)

[Ed Cone]

Trying chewing tobacco and pretending you liked it was a rite of passage in the North Carolina of my boyhood.

But I merely verified the error -- it was pointed out by alert reader PN, who may well have been the only person in the Conde Nast building to catch it. Then again, he grew up in Ohio, and so may have had similar cultural experiences to my own.

Re: Limousine Liberals. Seems we're better off if rich people care about poor people, rather than just pulling up the ladder and saying I've Got Mine.