There’s a simple answer to the David Brooks/Paul Krugman fight.

Brooks seems to be correct in pointing out that the frequently circulated tale of Ronald Reagan appealing to racism during a campaign visit to Philadelphia, MS — which appears in Krugman’s new book — has been exaggerated.

Krugman’s response is to provide a laundry list of inflammatory rhetoric and coded racial appeals used by Reagan during his political career.

But can’t both of them be right? The Philadelphia, MS anecdote has been exaggerated and oversimplified, but it remains true that Reagan exploited the issue of race in various ugly ways during his political career. Was that so hard?

Update 11/12 4:06 PM: Brad DeLong links to a History News Network article by historian Joseph Crespino, which cites various aspects of Reagan’s campaign that might have reinforced anti-black sentiment among Mississippi voters. However, none of them directly support the simplified account of the Philadelphia, MS speech that Krugman apparently tells repeatedly in his book The Conscience of a Liberal and in his column (here and here).

For more on how the standard liberal account of the speech is oversimplified, see Kevin Drum and Bruce Bartlett.

Update 11/13 10:40 AM: I’ve written a new post with more details — please click here for more.