Uncategorized
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Hillary’s still more polarizing
For years now, I’ve written about the potential weaknesses of Hillary Clinton in a general election campaign due to her high unfavorable ratings. Ezra Klein disagreed (here and here), arguing that any candidate in national politics becomes polarizing over time. But as I argued, there’s a big difference between ending up as a polarizing figure
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NYT: The cutting edge of youth culture
My friend Ben Fritz appropriately mocks some breaking news from the New York Times — young people email links to their friends! According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and
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The economics of Hillary withdrawal
Matthew Yglesias seems a bit puzzled that Democratic party elders haven’t stepped in to force Hillary Clinton out of the race. He writes that “insofar as it’s really true that [Nancy Pelosi] and ‘other leading members of Congress’ think [don’t think Hillary can win and want her to give up], they need to communicate it
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Justice Scalia inflates the denominator
With math skills like this, it’s no wonder Antonin Scalia went to law school: A couple of years ago, Justice Antonin Scalia, concurring in a Supreme Court death penalty decision, took stock of the American criminal justice system and pronounced himself satisfied. The rate at which innocent people are convicted of felonies is, he said,
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Campaign for America’s Future: Nativist
In the conclusion of All the President’s Spin, we predicted that liberal organizations would increasingly adopt the PR tactics of conservatives. Sadly, what we predicted has come true over and over again during the last few years. A perfect example of this is a new Web video from Campaign for America’s Future, which has adapted
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Dick Cheney’s democratic disregard
I know I’m late to the party, but this Dick Cheney quote really is staggering: Five years after the start of the war in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney offered a positive assessment of the war today and called last year’s troop surge a “major success.” “On the security front, I think there’s a general
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Grandparent break
With my folks in town to see the littlest Nyhan, two conference papers to write, and March Madness under way, I’m on hiatus until next week. Enjoy the weekend…
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What happens if Obama loses big in PA?
Slate’s Mickey Kaus asks a good question: What do the Democrats do when Obama loses Pennsylvania, not by 10 or 15 points but by 20 or 25 points? That seems to be the way things are headed. … And, indeed, the polling trend from Pollster.com looks pretty grim (and this is before the Jeremiah Wright
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John McCain fails the Jeff Stein test
John McCain touts his military and foreign policy experience, but apparently doesn’t understand the most basic distinctions between Sunnis and Shiites (i.e. Iran is Shiite, Al Qaeda is Sunni). I think it’s time for reporters to ask all of our leaders the question Jeff Stein of CQ posed back in 2006: For the past several
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Bush thanks Paulson for working weekends
In the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Depression, did President Bush really thank Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for working through the weekend? Mr. Bush singled out Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. for praise, saying he had shown “the country and the world that the United States is on top of the