Krugman vs Ferguson: Obama and Felix the Cat

American blogger Paul Krugman asked "Are there no editors?" after Neil Ferguson wrote an article in the Financial Times that began:

"President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat. One of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black. He was also very, very lucky. And that pretty much sums up the 44th president of the US..."

Ferguson defended himself in an article named "Why My Comparing Obama to Felix the Cat is not Racist," arguing that "Black cats are proverbially lucky" and "Felix the cartoon character was a black cat, not an African-American cat - in other words, he was not one of the (quite numerous) 1920s figures in popular entertainment that mocked the mannerisms of the descendants of slaves."

Krugman had this final note on the matter:

"For the record, I don’t think that Professor Ferguson is a racist.
I think he’s a poseur.
I’m told that some of his straight historical work is very good. When it comes to economics, however, he hasn’t bothered to understand the basics, relying on snide comments and surface cleverness to convey the impression of wisdom. It’s all style, no comprehension of substance.
And this time he ended up choking on his own snark."

Do we agree?