Krugman Attacks Gingrich: 'Stupid Man's Idea of What a Smart Man Sounds Like'

Noel Sheppard
November 20th, 2011 6:42 PM
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Paul Krugman, who three months ago called for space aliens to invade earth in order to get the government to spend more money, attacked Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on ABC's This Week Sunday referring to the former House Speaker as "a stupid man's idea of what a smart man sounds like" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

PEGGY NOONAN: Can I say something about Newt? I feel Newt -- we need a little on the pro-Newt side balance. One thing that I think Newt has going for him is we're a nation of insiders, in a way. Everybody's always on the Internet reading stuff. The base of the Republican Party knows that the establishment of the Republican Party doesn't like Newt. That's a big plus.

Second thing is, I mean, on the base -- the second is that Newt's debate strategy was so fresh and so spoke to Republicans. He did this. He said, I'm not going to fight with the other guys here. They'd all be a better president than Obama. What I'm going to do is tell you what we -- what we have to do to get out of the mess we're in. Plus, I'm going to hate the media for you and take them on.

(CROSSTALK)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: But isn't that the point, though? It is his debate performance that's sort of propelled him sort of where he is right now, after the bad debate performance...

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL KRUGMAN: It was his time. I mean, people -- the Republican base does not want Romney, and they keep on looking for an alternative. And Newt, although somebody said he's a stupid man's idea of what a smart man sounds like, but he is more plausible than the other guys that they've been pushing up.

AMANPOUR: OK, very quickly...

NOONAN: He also knows how to make the case for conservative thinking at surprising moments.

For those wondering why Noonan came to Gingrich's defense, it's because prior to that point, for the most part, nobody on the panel had anything nice to say about the former House Speaker including George Will.

For those interested in experiencing a stupid man's idea of what a smart man sounds like, please check out the hundreds of truly idiotic statements made by Krugman kept for posterity in NewsBusters archives. 

You'll quickly realize this isn't a man that should ever insult anyone's intelligence while camera's are rolling unless of course it's part of a gag on Saturday Night Live.