Gilford, NH-- Speaking at the Gunstock ski lodge here, Hillary just responded to a question about Social Security by name-checking Paul Krugman and the arguments he makes here. "Some of you read Paul Krugman and... he agrees with me," she said. "I think he's a pretty good judge of the political winds." (She never mentioned Obama specifically, though.)
Update: After the event, I happened to run into the woman who asked the original question. Irene Goddu, an artist from Laconia, had specifically asked Hillary about liftingthe payroll cap beyond $97,500--not only to shore up the Social Security system but because it " seems unjust" that the payroll tax "lies squarely on the backs of the middle class and the poor." After the event Goddu told me Clinton "didn't totally answer my question," and said she was unpersauded by the Krugman view. "It's not just that I believe the Republcians and the scare tactics," she said. "Fairness is the issue."
That's when a friend of hers, a nurse whose name I didn't catch, chimed in to say, "Better to take it easy than to tell you something you want to hear!"
Goddu seemed to concede this point. And, indeed, Goddu said she's decided to vote for Hillary and didn't change her mind today.
P.S. Last night John McCain saw a global warming activist dressed as a snowman at his event and thought he was a chicken. Today Hillary saw someone in the same costume and thought it was a penguin. The difference between McCain and Hillary is that he actually called on the chicken/snowman to ask a question, even though he must have assumed it was a heckler.
-Michael Crowley