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- Another way of looking at Kevin Drum's theory -- that you can attribute the sudden uptick for Democrats on the Gallup generic congressional ballot to the continued alienation of independents by Republicans -- is that it offers a Hail Mary campaign strategy for candidates like Charlie Crist and Harry Reid. For Crist, this means running on "the Republican Party left me" platform, a.k.a. the Arlen Specter approach. For Reid it's "look how crazy my opponent is." The common ground is that the GOP base drove both candidates into these electoral strategies.
- It's ridiculous to ask whether Andrew Breibart's latest character assassination will cost him credibility. Matt Drudge, anyone? I can tolerate a certain amount of celebrity trash-reporting if it occasionally subsidizes good liberal journalism, but all you're getting with Breibart's little conservative media empire is a lot of bad journalism designed to fulfill right-wing revenge fantasies.
- As an alternative take on the more dour "Tales from our Vibrant Economy," I'd like to recommend Milton Ezrati's convincing list of seven reasons we're not headed for a double-dip recession, as well as Daniel Indiviglio's explanation of why jobs aren't coming back quickly enough. Both pieces suggest a slow but predictable recovery is already underway, but one in which unemployment will remain high.
- Remainders: Greg Sargent on the GOP's unemployment gambit; The Washington Times runs another thoughtful op-ed on the applicability of foreign law to judicial decision-making; I have no idea what Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is talking about, but I'm sure Speaker Boehner will get to the bottom of it; and voter enthusiasm is not the same thing as voter excitement.
--Mori Dinauer
