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- Rick Perlstein argues that by failing to make the case that Rush Limbaugh (among others) was deliberately misleading the country early in his administration, Obama set himself up for a midterm election where there was widespread belief that taxes had been raised, not lowered. I've heard some version of the "tax cut for 95 percent of Americans" line a bazillion times. I'm all for calling out liars, but correcting public misinformation is not that simple.
- The sales figures for books written by politicians are meaningless as an indicator of popularity, but I was surprised to see Newt Gingrich barely crack a million books sold (No. 7 on the top 10 list) over the past decade given that he seems to have a new book coming out every other week. Even the former governor of Alaska debuted with higher sales! One wonders why the man gets so much attention.
- Everyone knows Mitt Romney's past support for a health-care plan that closely resembles the Affordable Care Act is a liability for his presidential ambitions, but it's important to understand how this plays out. It's not as if Republican primary voters are going to independently weigh this issue come 2012; they're going to weigh this issue because Romney's primary opponents are going to repeatedly bring it up during the interminable Republican debate season. I still think he's the front runner, but this is clearly a major obstacle.
- Remainders: You'd think with the election behind them Republicans would be willing to share their plans for making America awesome again, but you'd be wrong; I assume reprising the character he played in 1987's The Running Man will figure prominently in the unstoppable presidential campaign of Jesse Ventura; and myth-busting with the electoral college.
-- Mori Dinauer
