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Zell Miller is not a “maverick” Democrat
This sentence from The New Yorker annoys me: Senator Zell Miller, the maverick Georgia Democrat, endorsed [Ohio secretary of state Ken] Blackwell for governor. Can journalists please stop calling Zell Miller a Democrat? “Maverick” is a weasel word. Miller gave the keynote address at the 2004 Republican convention endorsing George W. Bush (where he made
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How Dick Gephardt is like Colin Farrell
His political career may be over, but Dick Gephardt lives on as a symbol of mediocrity in today’s New York Times review of “Miami Vice”: Mr. [Colin] Farrell, however, is a movie star only in the sense that Richard Gephardt is president of the United States. He’s always looked good on paper, and he’s picked
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The arrogant Clinton machine
In a New Republic article on the rivalry between Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton, a “Clinton strategist” touts how she will have her “own field staff, starting way before the primaries begin, right through November 7”: Clinton’s camp is seeking to change this landscape. Its strategy appears to be twofold. First, it is laying the
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The sociology of MoveOn.org
This quote from today’s MoveOn.org email captures the group perfectly (PDF): Dear MoveOn member, Did you hear NPR this morning? They released a new poll showing that in the top 50 House races, voters choose Democrats over Republicans by a big margin. Here’s a better question: how many MoveOn members don’t listen to NPR? (PS
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Nifong opponent declines to run
Despite qualifying for the ballot, Durham county commissioner Lewis Cheek has announced that he won’t take on District Attorney Mike Nifong in November despite Nifong’s handling of the disastrous lacrosse prosecution: Durham lawyer Lewis Cheek announced this morning that he will not run against District Attorney Mike Nifong, even though Cheek’s name will appear on
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Bush’s tricky employment/net worth stats
In an email sent to RNC supporters (PDF), President Bush touts the state of the economy using some of his trademark misleading economic statistics: Because Republicans acted and had an economic recovery plan, we have created strong economic growth and nearly 5.3 million new jobs in the last two and half years; the national unemployment
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Hillary: No progress in five years
Via Andrew Sullivan, a new Gallup analysis shows that Hillary Clinton’s favorability profile has remained largely static for the last five years (requires viewing an ad): The story is largely the same as the one from the graphic I posted a year ago: This is bad news for Hillary supporters because she’s been getting a
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50% think Saddam had WMD?
Via Kevin Drum, a new Harris poll suggests that misperceptions about Iraqi WMD have increased during the last year: Despite being widely reported in the media that the U.S. and other countries have not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, surprisingly; more U.S. adults (50%) think that Iraq had such weapons when the
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Washington Post: Bellwethers
The Washington Post has put together a nice table dividing key Congressional races into a series of categories based on the key issues in each one (example: “Anxious Suburbs » Will the Iraq War come home in November?”). Definitely worth a look.
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Revisiting the nature/nurture debate on IQ
This week’s New York Times Magazine includes a fascinating article about the flaws in the research on the determinants of intelligence. Previously, as the article points out, studies had shown that “a person’s I.Q. is remarkably stable and that about three-quarters of I.Q. differences between individuals are attributable to heredity” — a depressing finding for