After Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, D.C., last year, Rachel Maddow convinced Stewart to sit down with her for over an hour to discuss politics and the media. She dedicated her entire show that night to the interview. I don't see how anyone could have come away from that interview thinking Maddow had not given serious thought to the state of the media today and her own role in it.

So you can imagine my astonishment when The New Republic listed Maddow on their list of Washington's 10 "over-rated thinkers." But sure enough, alongside Newt Gingrich and Ayn Rand, there she was:

Stand back, folks, while I defend Mitt Romney over the question of who cuts his lawn. Patrick has the details on the original case below, but here's the exchange between Romney and Rick Perry that happened during last night's debate:

The thing to remember about Barack Obama’s support among black voters in the 2008 election is that it simply wasn’t as remarkable as it was presented. Obama won 95 percent of African American voters, which is not substantially higher than John Kerry’s 88 percent performance in 2004 and Al Gore’s 90 percent performance in 2000. In other words, African Americans are stalwarts of the Democratic Party, and routinely deliver huge margins to Democratic candidates in national, state, and local elections.

Here's your daily dose of big government oppression:

WASHINGTON — Users of cellphones and other wireless devices who are nearing their monthly limit for voice, text or data services will receive alerts when they are in danger of being charged extra, under an agreement reached by carriers and the Federal Communications Commission...

Over the weekend I had a piece in the Los Angeles Times arguing that there's something wrong with the fact that candidates who grew up in small towns tout their roots, but those who grew up in the cities or suburbs -- where most Americans actually live -- never do. Here's an excerpt: