More ‘Lunatics’

The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson considers these people lunatics for supporting bankruptcy for the Big Three automakers.

Robinson’s  List O’ Loons, H/T Conn Carrol:

John Bates Clark Medal winner and Columbia University economics professor Joseph Stiglitz

Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig

John Bates Clark Medal winner and Nobel laureate Gary Becker

I’m referring to his latest column, where he writes:

It may be that General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are lumbering, Jurassic beasts that deserve their looming extinction. But only a free-market fundamentalist, a lunatic or a Senate Republican — perhaps that’s redundant — would conclude that now is the moment to hasten Detroit’s demise.

Washington Post: More Than Half of Us Are Crazy

Conn Carrol rightly points out:

Washington Post assistant managing editor Eugene Robinson believes that anyone who opposes a federal government bailout of General Motors and Chrysler is a ‘lunatic’. So how does The Washington Post deal with the fact that their latest survey shows 55% of the American people oppose that very bailout? Well you bury it on page D08 of course:

Majority of Public Opposes Auto Rescue
Poll Finds Most Blame Industry for Problems, Believe Failure Won’t Hurt Economy

By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 16, 2008; D08

Most Americans continue to oppose a government-backed rescue plan for Detroit’s Big Three automakers as majorities blame the industry for its own problems and are unconvinced failure would hurt the economy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Overall, 55 percent of those polled oppose the latest plan that Chrysler, Ford and General Motors executives pitched to Congress last week, on par with public opposition to earlier, pricier efforts. But with 42 percent support, the new request for up to $14 billion in emergency loans has more backers than previous proposals to secure up to $34 billion in loan guarantees.

Great find, Conn.