×
- The only thing the new Washington Post/ABC News poll tells us about the midterm elections is that the public is politically schizophrenic. The president, Democrats, and Republicans all fare poorly in the "trust" category, but the public still trusts Democrats more than Republicans on the economy and to "make the right decisions." Naturally, this means a narrow majority plans to vote for the GOP instead of Democrats this November.
- In what is surely the biggest news of the year -- if not the decade -- disgraced public figure Newt Gingrich has told a wire service that he's "never been this serious" about a presidential run. This might even be the most serious Gingrich has been since he last published a book about the secular-socialism of the Democratic Party. You might even say that destiny is calling Gingrich's name.
- The problem with prioritizing "small government," as Ezra Klein correctly notes, is that you then assume your political opposition wants "big government." Obviously, liberals focus on government expansion in certain sectors of the economy because they think the market has failed there in some way but conservatives believe otherwise, I assume, because they assume ideology is what motivates all political action. The less exciting reality is that liberals want to fix public-policy problems.
- Remainders: Republicans aren't interested in governing, they just want power; a blogger's online persona isn't much different from their offline persona; Richard Cohen doesn't think non-consensual sex with a minor is a big deal; and Glenn Beck is a master of avant-garde comedy.
-- Mori Dinauer
