Uncategorized
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Pundit psychiatrists on Palin, Obama
The only thing worse than pretending to read minds is offering long-distance diagnoses of mental illness in your political opponents — a practice that has become increasingly common among pundits on the left and right. In the last few weeks, the board-certified psychiatrist trio of Michelle Goldberg, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage have diagnosed Sarah
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Failed AP factcheck on Palin
Let me recommend Greg Marx’s critique of the AP’s Going Rogue “fact check”, which illustrates how the paradigm can go horribly wrong. As Marx notes, the AP critique frequently targets claims that fall short of the standard we tried to uphold at Spinsanity — statements that are false or blatantly misleading. In some cases, the
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Newsweek profits from Palin cover
Newsweek’s decision to run a picture from Sarah Palin’s ill-advised Runner’s World photo shoot on its cover is being condemned as sexist by everyone from Palin herself to Media Matters, and rightfully so.* Some conservatives have also condemned the cover as demonstrating Newsweek’s liberal bias, which may also be true. However, I think the most
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The looming 2012 health care battle
National Journal’s Ron Brownstein makes an important point about health care — even if the Democratic reform bill is signed into law, Republicans are likely to try to repeal it if they take back the White House in 2013: If Obama does sign a reform bill, which appears more likely than not, Republicans will face
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Continetti’s unlikely case for Palin
Least plausible political argument I’ve seen today — Matthew Continetti’s Wall Street Journal op-ed claiming Sarah Palin’s “poll numbers among independents are strong enough to give her a chance” to make a comeback (coincidentally, he wrote a book defending her). Here’s the key passage on Palin’s poll numbers: Ms. Palin’s unpopularity—the result of horrendous media
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Michael Steele says what?
In addition to imitating white Republicans like Eddie Murphy and creating a blog that was briefly called “What Up?”, RNC chairman Michael Steele also became the first major political figure to use the Wayne’s World “Not!” catchphrase as a debating tactic on Sunday (via my friend Ben Fritz): STEPHANOPOULOS: When you hear Governor Kaine talk
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Hannity links Obama to Fort Hood
Conservative elites continue to exploit the misperception that President Obama is a Muslim. The latest offender is Fox’s Sean Hannity, who suggested Monday night that President Obama was somehow responsible for the Fort Hood shooting: This Fort Hood situation is really beginning to disturb me and should disturb everybody. And that is that there is
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Dick Armey: Elitist
I tend to believe that many elites who promote misinformation don’t actually believe what they’re saying, but it’s rare that you see someone being as candid about it as Dick Armey: Armey prides himself on his intellect and rationality, but his years in Washington have taught him the political uses of irrationality and even outright
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John Shadegg uses baby as a prop
Breaking new ground in the use of props on the floor of Congress, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) dispensed with Robin Hood quotes and cartoon dragons. Instead, he took the even classier route of holding up a baby and putting words into her mouth (via NPR): As member of the House debated the health care reform
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The House health care vote
Since people seemed to like my post on the Coburn amendment, here are some political science visualizations of the 220-215 final passage vote on the House health care bill. First, here is Royce Carrol’s auto-generated plot of the vote using Lewis-Poole optimal classification estimates: The cutting line, which represents the best-fitting line separating yes from