Month: July 2008
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Myths you probably believe in
Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias, respectively, have nice posts on two wildly popular misconceptions about politics: 1. Your ideological opponents are vastly better organized than your side. 2. Your side is losing/has lost because the media is biased against you. #2 in particular is part of a more general phenomenon in which people search for
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NYT reads Evan Bayh’s mind
Via TNR’s Michael Crowley, the New York Times reporters Adam Nagourney and Patrick Healy take out their crystal ball and pretend to read Evan Bayh’s mind: For all the lengths Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have gone to in keeping their hunt for a vice president under wraps, their deliberations are in some ways
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Why I’m sad Yglesias is moving to CAP
Ross Douthat captures my feelings perfectly about the very talented Matthew Yglesias moving to Center for American Progress: I respect his desire to be in the arena, TR-style, rather than on the sidelines, and there’s no doubt a touch of concern-trolling involved whenever I fret about how the new progressive ecosystem seems hell-bent on imitating
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Obama and future economic growth
Paul Krugman discusses the implications of a likely post-housing bubble hangover for Barack Obama: If the current slump follows the typical modern pattern, the economy will stay depressed well into 2010, if not beyond — plenty of time for the public to start blaming the new incumbent, and punish him in the midterm elections. To
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McCain adopts Bush tax/budget playbook
After almost a decade of dissembling by George W. Bush about tax and budget matters, will John McCain get away with the same approach? McCain’s misleading claims about Barack Obama raising taxes on small business continue to be repeated by the press: Washingtonpost.com’s The Trail blog, CNN, and CBSNews.com each repeated Sen. John McCain’s false
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The politics of Marie Claire’s sexy 101
Enough with all the fact-checking and analysis, you say. What’s hot? What’s sexy? I don’t know, but the insiders at Marie Claire emailed to share some items from their “Sexy 101” list. Apparently Corey Booker is “looking fine” while cleaning up Newark. Also, we should “get this party started” in Cuba: Sexiest Cause: Micro[cr]edit. Fusty
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Hannity misleads again on Obama tax plan
On Sunday, I noted that Sean Hannity was falsely claiming that Barack Obama would raise taxes on everyone by letting all of President Bush’s tax cuts expire. (Actually, Obama will raise taxes on high-income Americans but reduce inome taxes on people making less than $75,000.) Then, driving home today, I heard him make the exact
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NYT shocked Obama didn’t end racial divide
Shorter New York Times: Barack Obama hasn’t magically healed racial divide in the US. He’s been the Democratic nominee for more than a month. What is he waiting for? Update 7/16 2:54 PM: Brad DeLong objects to the sample sizes used in the Times poll: I must admit that my breath is stopped by the
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Voinovich’s tricky ANWR spin
Via the New York Times, Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) is using some slick spin to exaggerate the probable effect of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a statement supporting President Bush’s decision to lift an executive ban on offshore oil drilling: If we had started exploring ANWR 10 years ago when President Clinton
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Should Obama object to New Yorker cover?
TNR’s Isaac Chotiner wonders whether the Obama campaign should have objected to this New Yorker cover depicting Barack Obama as a Muslim and his wife as a black radical, which was intended to satirize conservative propaganda about the couple: What I do not understand, however, is why the Obama campaign has chosen to pick a