Paul Krugman has truly lost it.  His man (Edwards) is out of the race and he's obviously thrown his support to Clinton to such an extent that he's willing to fabricate utter nonsense.  Cult of personality?  Venom from Obama supporters?  What, pray tell, is Krugman smoking?  He presents zero evidence to support his scurrilous accusations, instead raising issues (Whitewater, Clinton's ill-advised LBJ/MLK comment and the Chelsea "pimped out") that Obama has never raised.  In fact, it's Clinton who's been playing dirty, pitting Latinos against blacks, with Bill out there talking "fairy tales", her aides raising the issue of Obama's dalliance with drugs as a teenager, etc.:

The bitterness of the fight for the Democratic nomination is, on the face of it, bizarre. Both candidates still standing are smart and appealing. Both have progressive agendas (although I believe that Hillary Clinton is more serious about achieving universal health care, and that Barack Obama has staked out positions that will undermine his own efforts). Both have broad support among the party’s grass roots and are favorably viewed by Democratic voters.

Supporters of each candidate should have no trouble rallying behind the other if he or she gets the nod.

Why, then, is there so much venom out there?

I won’t try for fake evenhandedness here: most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody. I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality. We’ve already had that from the Bush administration — remember Operation Flight Suit? We really don’t want to go there again.

What’s particularly saddening is the way many Obama supporters seem happy with the application of “Clinton rules” — the term a number of observers use for the way pundits and some news organizations treat any action or statement by the Clintons, no matter how innocuous, as proof of evil intent.

----------------

February 11, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Hate Springs Eternal

By PAUL KRUGMAN

www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/opinion/11krugman.html

In 1956 Adlai Stevenson, running against Dwight Eisenhower, tried to make the political style of his opponent’s vice president, a man by the name of Richard Nixon, an issue. The nation, he warned, was in danger of becoming “a land of slander and scare; the land of sly innuendo, the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustling, pushing, shoving; the land of smash and grab and anything to win. This is Nixonland.”