Month: November 2007
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Cohen brings back third party hype
I was just thinking how nice it was that the persistent and unrealistic third party hype had finally died down, but then I read Richard Cohen and got annoyed all over again. Yes, he eventually allows that it is unlikely Bloomberg could win the presidency, but the whole column is still absurd: The equilibrium of
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Stephen Moore insults our intelligence
Supply-sider Stephen Moore, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, again suggests that tax cuts increase revenue: The quality of this discourse rarely rises above the level of trash talk. Nevertheless, some arguments are repeated with such regularity that they need to be addressed. One is that supply-siders dishonestly claim that tax rate
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Edwards: Unrealistic and unconstitutional
Via Christina Bellantoni, John Edwards has released an ad in Iowa that makes the misleading claim that he can take away health care from members of Congress: The Clinton campaign’s Fact Hub blog has posted a response citing my post on Edwards’s proposal as well as one by Matthew Yglesias: Sen. Edwards has a new
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More on Krugman vs. Brooks
Various liberal bloggers (here, here, and here) are concluding that Paul Krugman was right in his debate with David Brooks over the meaning of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 speech in Philadelphia, MS. The key point, according to Kevin Drum, is this: Reagan’s states rights line was prepared beforehand and reporters covering the event could not recall
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Martha Farah on fMRI interpretation
I wasn’t the only person to object to yesterday’s New York Times column on brain imaging study of the 2008 presidential race. Martha Farah, the director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Penn, has written a very useful guest post for the Neuroethics & Law blog on why the research should be treated with
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Who would want to be Hillary’s VP?
According to CNN’s Candy Crowley, Joe Biden made an interesting point when asked if he would serve as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential nominee (mp3 from CNN’s Race to ’08 podcast): DICK ULIANO [CNN]: [W]ould [Biden] accept a vice presidential slot, say, on a Hillary Clinton ticket or Barack Obama? CROWLEY: I believe the answer —
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Watch out for brain scan hype
When you read about brain-scanning studies like the one in today’s New York Times, remember that interpreting fMRI data is more art than science and that the sample sizes are tiny and unrepresentative. I don’t know how to interpret any of the claims in the article without way more information, which will hopefully be forthcoming
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Obama: I’ve been in elected office longer
One of the highlights of my Sunday was seeing Barack Obama rebut the phony Hillary “experience” meme on “Meet the Press”: MR. RUSSERT: Hillary Clinton was first lady in Arkansas, first lady at the White House for eight years, U.S. senator for seven years. Can you compete with that? SEN. OBAMA: Well, you know, if
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More ad watches?
According to new studies sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, ad watch coverage by newspapers and local TV increased in 2006 (PDF). I haven’t read the reports closely, but the finding is encouraging.
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The Obama national anthem smear
The Nation’s Chris Hayes and PolitiFact have details on a smear circulating about Barack Obama by email. Here’s Politifact: A chain e-mail says a photograph shows Barack Obama is unpatriotic because he “refused” to say the Pledge of Allegiance and did not put his hand over his heart. But the photo was taken during the