First of all, Krugman repeatedly brings up the issue of Reagan's 1980 speech in Mississippi to prove that the 40th President was a racist. As long as two years ago, Jon Henke called Krugman on this issue and corrected his many errors. The issue also got covered here. Google is a powerful tool and one would think that someone like Krugman would use it to see whether his arguments have stood up under the scrutiny of others. Evidently, on this issue, Krugman hasn't taken the past corrections of his charges into account. Indeed, he doesn't even acknowledge them except in the most oblique terms, thus ensuring that people won't know much about Krugman's critics and what their criticisms entail.
Oddly, Mr. Krugman isn't alone in failing to acknowledge the criticisms. Mr. Yousefzadeh forgets to tell us about the error that Mr. Krugman is running away from. What to do except click the link? Apparently, Jon Henke at the Q and O Blog wrote a couple of years ago:
Here's the thing: Reagan launched his 1980 campaign at the Neshoba County Fair. The Neshoba County Fair is not in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It's near it, certainly, but about 10-20 miles outside of Philadelphia. If you look at a map of the Neshoba County Fairgrounds, you'll see a highway running by it with the annotation: "Highway 21 TO Philadelphia".
Wow. Mr. Krugman must be really, really embarrassed to make such an error. The speech wasn't in Philadelphia, it was outside the city limits!!
I, along with Mr. Yousefzadeh, I'm sure, await Mr. Krugman's contrite retraction of the charge that Mr. Reagan actively sought the votes of white racists by kicking off his campaign in Mississippi with a speech endorsing "state's rights."
