At the end of his column today on how the GOP has overreact to the threat of Islamic terrorism since 9/11, Paul Krugman hits another low:

Most Americans have now regained their balance. But the Republican base, which lapped up the administration's rhetoric about the axis of evil and the war on terror, remains infected by the fear the Bushies stirred up - perhaps because fear of terrorists maps so easily into the base's older fears, including fear of dark-skinned people in general.

And the base is looking for a candidate who shares this fear. [emphasis added]

Apparently, being in favor of a strong response to terrorism now means you're a bigot as well. It's a ridiculous, ad hominem attack, and one that perhaps obscures the larger importance of the rest of the column.

Krugman is in many ways a weather vane of liberal opinion, though he doesn't so much generate new ideas as regurgitate and amplify what he sees and hears among his clique in the liberal intelligentsia and the progressive blogosphere. And this column offers a couple of excellent clues about how the left would like to frame this election, which basically is as follows: Republicans, in general, have vastly overhyped the threat of Islamic terrorism (in part because they're bigots), and Rudy Giuliani, in particular, is a dangerous man with an even more dangerous set of neo-con advisors who will take America to war with Iran.

Krugman's column is a road map to the Democrats' general election strategy against the guy most pundits agree is the Republicans' best bet to hold on to the White House - if he can win the nomination. It'll be a replay of the '64 campaign against Goldwater, complete with tens of millions of dollars spent on modern day versions of "Daisy."

Of course, sixteen years later the Democrats tried the same thing against Reagan and failed miserably. But that was after four years of Jimmy Carter. After eight years of George W. Bush, a war weary public might well buy into Krugman's line of attack on Rudy.

It's pretty ironic, however, that Krugman slams the GOP for overhyping threats and using fear as a political tool, because that's exactly what he's doing in this column. So much so, in fact, it seems Krugman believes that President Giuliani would be more of a threat to the country than Islamic terrorists or a nuclear armed Iran.