From Paul Krugman's piece yesterday, “A Heckuva Job,” a phrase forever ruined by Pres. George W. Bush and GOP cronyism. The wrong people were put in important positions and the disasters that tend to happen got much, much worse:

Katrina was special in political terms because it revealed such a huge gap between image and reality. Ever since 9/11, former President George W. Bush had been posing as a strong, effective leader keeping America safe. He wasn't. ... It took a domestic disaster, which made his administration's cronyism and incompetence obvious to anyone with a TV set, to burst his bubble.

To quote Paul Isaacson from E.L. Doctorow's “The Book of Daniel”: “And it's still going on, Danny. In today's newspaper, it's still going on. Right outside the door of this house it's going on.”

And it's not just Donald Trump, Krugman tells us. Krugman goes through the slate of GOP candidates and finds not much besides Hollywood-style PR. Chris Christie was supposed to be the straight-talking gov who got things done; Jeb Bush was supposed to be the smart Bush. 

Remember when Scott Walker was the man to watch? Remember when Bobby Jindal was brilliant?

Then my favorite graf:

I know, now I'm supposed to be evenhanded, and point out equivalent figures on the Democratic side. But there really aren't any; in modern America, cults of personality built around undeserving politicians seem to be a Republican thing.

Yes, yes and yes. And why is that? That's the question for Republicans to ask themselves. 

I would argue it goes back to Reagan.