Uncategorized
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The subjectivity of defining an electoral “wave”
Via Mickey Kaus, here’s top election analyst Charlie Cook illustrating the subjectivity of defining an electoral “wave” (just like mandates): Do the math: An 11-point Democratic lead on the generic ballot test, minus 5 points for the gauge’s Democratic skew, translated into a 6-point Democratic victory. When the 6-point Democratic popular vote win is measured
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Newt Gingrich: Today’s politics too mean
In addition to advocating restrictions on freedom of speech, Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and current presidential candidate, is bemoaning the meanness of today’s politics: Political parties in Presidential primary states should host events that invite candidates from both parties to discuss issues, said Gingrich, who criticized the sharpness of today’s politics.
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Another political figure on Jeopardy
Via Power Line, Hot Air features video of Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings getting spanked on Celebrity Jeopardy. She was more than $20,000 behind at the start of Final Jeopardy — ouch. But that’s still not as bad as Christie Todd Whitman’s Final Jeopardy answer. Here’s what I wrote last year: The final Jeopardy question
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Richard Cohen: Violence is therapeutic
Via Atrios (can’t find the link), the pathologies of the Washington pundit class in one paragraph — Richard Cohen admits he supported the war in Iraq because he thought “the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic”: On the contrary, I thought. We are a good country, attempting to do a good thing. In a
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Third party fantasia watch: Mark Schmitt
Writing on Tapped, Mark Schmitt is the latest pundit to succumb to pointless third-party speculation, writing that it’s “quite obvious” that McCain and Lieberman will mount a third-party presidential campaign: It’s tempting to make fun of Marshall Wittmann’s newest guise, as Lieberman’s communications director, as if it were just another twist in one of the
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Thanksgiving break
I’m currently visiting family in California, so posts are going to be intermittent until next week…
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Krauthammer’s revisionism on Iraq
Andrew Sullivan catches the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer dissembling about the motivations for the Iraq war in his latest column, where he writes: Our objectives in Iraq were twofold and always simple: Depose Saddam Hussein and replace his murderous regime with a self-sustaining, democratic government. As Sullivan notes, however, something is missing from this list:
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David Rohde: The parties are back
One of my mentors at Duke, David Rohde, has an eloquent op-ed in the New York Times about the resurgence of the two major parties. Here’s how it begins: THE midterm elections have been widely viewed as a sudden change of direction, with Democrats seizing the wheel from Republicans. While that may be true, the
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Evan Thomas reads President Bush’s mind
I’ve written before about the problems with journalistic mind–reading and story-telling “analysis” about the president’s visual appearance. Via a journalist to remain nameless, here’s an especially egregious example of both from Newsweek’s Evan Thomas: At his post-election press conference, the president looked like a base runner trapped in a rundown, unable to go forward or
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Adam Putnam on “redneck” turnout
According to the Hotline On Call blog, Rep. Adam Putnam, a candidate for Republican conference chair in the House, cited a lack of turnout among “white rednecks who go to church on Sunday” as one of the factors contributing to the party’s midterm losses: “White rednecks” who “didn’t show up to vote for us” partly