Uncategorized
-
Hillary’s kindergarten opp research
As Barack Obama’s campaign notes (along with many bloggers), Hillary Clinton is pushing opposition research quoting an essay he wrote in kindergarten: In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want to Become President.’ “Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama’s kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked
-
Margin of error alert: Obama not up in Iowa
As the NYT’s Janet Elder points out (via Andrew Gelman), journalists are once again hyping minor differences in polling while neglecting to mention the margin of error in their results. Here’s a great example from the Des Moines Register’s article on its new poll for the Iowa Democratic caucus (my emphasis): Barack Obama has pulled
-
Obama’s bizarre open access plan
A few weeks ago, I noted that Barack Obama had apparently taken his goo-goo tendencies to new extremes by promising that “[w]hen government officials meet with corporate lobbyists, you should be able to watch the meeting” in an email to supporters (PDF). At the time, I questioned whether the line was vetted policy, but today’s
-
Clark Hoyt on NYT ’08 fact-checking
Clark Hoyt, the former Knight Ridder reporter and editor (now McClatchy), is living up to his promise as public editor of the New York Times. Today he takes the paper to task for failing to fact-check candidate claims in a timely fashion — one of the reasons that McClatchy’s coverage is often so much better
-
Diana Mutz on “in-your-face” TV debate
Via Henry Farrell, the lead article in the new American Political Science Review is Diana C. Mutz, “Effects of “In-Your-Face” Television Discourse on Perceptions of a Legitimate Opposition” (PDF): Abstract: How do Americans acquire the impression that their political foes have some understandable basis for their views, and thus represent a legitimate opposition? How do
-
NYT busts Giuliani on bogus stats
The New York Times has an impressively critical article on Rudy Giuliani’s misleading use of statistics in today’s edition. Here’s how it begins: In almost every appearance as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, Rudolph W. Giuliani cites a fusillade of statistics and facts to make his arguments about his successes in running New
-
How did Saletan miss Rushton’s background?
Will Saletan tries to clean up the mess over his ill-conceived Slate series on race and intelligence, which was shredded here, here, here, and here (among others): Last week, I wrote about the possibility of genetic IQ differences among races. I wanted to discuss whether egalitarianism could survive if this scenario, raised last month by
-
The Sierra Club’s holiday survival guide
The New York Times notes an amusingly wacky Sierra Club website with tips on winning arguments about environmentalism over the holidays: Are you likely to be the lone environmentalist at the dinner table sometime soon? Win arguments and influence people with this handy guide. You’ll find ready responses to the predictable dinner table arguments that’ll
-
McCain: The Myth of a Maverick arrives
In the mail: McCain: The Myth of a Maverick by Matt Welch. More when I read it…
-
Mitt takes the GOP backward
At Polysigh, Phil Klinkner notes the historical discrepancies between Mitt Romney’s alleged statement about Muslims in his cabinet and the history of the GOP: Mitt Romney is in a bit of hot water over his comments that he would be unlikely to appoint a Muslim to a cabinet post. He is reported to have said: