As we have mentioned before Paul Krugman is in the middle of a cut-and-run strategy from his previous prognostications for the US economy (remember the "double dip" recession, or the Japanese style deflation or the banana republic-hood, latin style. With Too Low a Bar (10/24/03) the retreat goes into high gear. The essence of the column is a castigation of Treasury Secretary Snow for setting up an easy target by predicting job growth of 2 million before the election. Krugman says "Mr. Snow may get lucky."

Oh really! Can anyone imagine the GDP growth rate associated with creation of 2 million jobs over the next 12 months? It's easily 4%. And what about the mood swing in this country during such a growth spurt? And its implications for the presidential election?

Hey PK. If you bet on the jobs issue to sink the Republicans and think an increase of 2 million is not enough�you've lost.