GOP candidates are deluding themselves and the voters

Where the Iowa caucuses illuminated the dark essence of social conservatism, the New Hampshire primary was a journey into the dingy, cramped quarters of the right wing’s economic policies.

The Republicans ritually denounced President Obama as hostile to capitalism, disdainful of individual enterprise and lacking in ideas for reviving the economy. All they had to offer were economic ideas that not only are inadequate for that purpose but were instrumental in creating the nation’s current economic problems.

In a flailing effort to address the pain of the middle class, the Republicans repeated familiar charges that Mr. Obama advocates a redistribution of wealth. Governer Rick Perry of Texas outright called him a socialist.

Newt Gingrich tried to focus national anger about income inequality with a faux populist assault on Mitt Romney’s participation in the frenzied world of leveraged buyouts.

It was all exactly backward. Americans are angry about income redistribution from the middle class to the tiny sliver at the top, not from the top down. Leveraged buyouts were only one factor in the growth of the income gap. Also to blame was a host of benighted economic policies advocated by Republicans for the last 30 years.

This fight will continue in South Carolina on Jan. 21. Mr Romney did not win the New Hampshire primary by enough to knock out his rivals because Representative Ron Paul and Rick Santorum were never expected to win and Jon Huntsman Junior did surprisingly well.

The candidates’ economic arguments were disturbingly disconnected from economic reality. They spoke of government spending as if it were the sole cause of the federal budget deficit and cutting it the sole solution. In reality, it was tax cuts for the wealthy, an assault on social programs and a deregulatory zeal that allowed a recklessness that led to near economic collapse.

The solution is policies that promote growth and help the middle class, not what the Republican hopefuls want. Mr Obama said it well on Monday night: “We can’t go back to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics.” You couldn’t tell that by listening to Mr Romney prattle about a meritbased economy and call for lowering taxes and cutting spending.

The answer is not more of the same failed policies. The solution is to revive the successful ones, along with policies to stimulate the economy and stop foreclosures. Mr.

Obama understands this. The Republican hopefuls are deluding themselves and trying to delude the voters.