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- Bruce Bartlett takes us on a trip down memory lane, to a time when Republican presidents were capable of making budget deals that actually reduced the deficit. Of course, Bush '41 paid a price for this apostasy: a new generation of Republicans who continue to subscribe to the idea that raising taxes can never be part of deficit reduction, which effectively restricts them from being responsible officeholders.
- It was only a matter of time before someone floated the notion that Obama putting David Petraeus in charge of Afghanistan was a way of neutralizing the general's inevitable 2016 presidential run. Now we have two takers: one in The Wall Street Journal and the other in The Daily Beast. Petraeus is, to be sure, the ultimate embodiment of our twin fetishes for presidential power and military authority.
- As Jamelle Bouie observes, we can greet news that 42 percent of Americans describe themselves as "conservative" with a collective "Who cares?" A plurality of Americans have been describing themselves alternately as "conservative" or "moderate" since, well, forever. And while movement conservatives will undoubtedly ascribe this "shift" to discontent with the liberal agenda of Barack Obama, there is very little evidence that the public subscribes to a coherent political ideology that can be measured.
- Remainders: This is a great example of political journalism grounded in fact, not narrative; here are a few examples of political journalism that makes assumptions not grounded in fact; Bobby Jindal is either incompetent or not taking the Gulf disaster seriously; and the extraordinarily thin skins of movement conservatives.
--Mori Dinauer
