CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE. In a sharp break from his recent wankery, Richard Cohen has an excellent column on John McCain today. It’s interesting, though, that Cohen thinks Jerry Falwell can codify McCain a true conservative. If that’s the case, and Falwell has become a gatekeeper for the ideology rather than just the Christianist voting bloc that rests in uneasy alliance with conservatism, then the word truly has lost all meaning.

–Ezra Klein

Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more.