Ann Friedman

THE EDWARDS WINDFALL VOTE. Contra the post-debate analyses on MSNBC, I thought John Edwards did just fine last night. (Former CA Speaker Willie Brown, echoing from a San Francisco studio what sour-grapes Joe Biden was saying onstage in Chicago, said Edwards did really poorly. Huh?) But Edwards needs to be crushing Hillary Clinton and Barack […]

TIT FOR TUBE-TAT. I’m with Garance in really liking the debate last night. But let’s also remember that, while the questions were submitted by “ordinary” Americans, CNN had selection power over submitted entries. And it seemed to me that some of the questions chosen — especially in the first 30-40 minutes — were those intended […]

CLOUT DOUBT. In their book, Foxes in the Henhouse, my bete noir, Mudcat Saunders and his more level-headed co-author, Steve Jarding, express indignation that too many Democrats “can’t count.” You don’t need an abacus, they argue, to realize the South is simply too big to dismiss. For a moment, let’s put aside the South’s electoral […]

DEMOCRATS FOR ROMNEY. A few weeks ago, while chatting with Garance at the sort of Beltway cocktail party that is all the sneer in post-blogger America, she confidently asserted that Mitt Romney would be the Republican nominee. I scoffed, but now I’m starting to think she may be on to something. A point I made […]

THE MYSTERIOUS MUSLIM CREATIONIST SHIPMENT. As Ezra notes, we at TAP were baffled by the dozen or so expensive creationist books that arrived at our office a few weeks ago. The big question is where does the maker of these books, a Turkish guy who goes by the name Harun Yahya, get the money to […]

SHORTER THAN IRAQ. I’m a towering 5’7″, so perhaps I should be gleeful about news that America, as a whole, is shrinking. But the statistical side of me knows that the fact that America is no longer the tallest country is an indirect, if partial indicator that our collective health is declining. [J]ust as it […]

FRED THOMPSON: MITT ROMNEY WITHOUT THE HAIR. Fred Thompson‘s nascent presidential campaign has taken a big hit. Last week the Los Angeles Times reported that, in the early 1990s, he lobbied the George H. W. Bush administration — on behalf of a pro-choice group — to loosen the “gag rule” that barred federally-funded clinics from […]

ABSTINENCE-ONLY FUNDING EXTENDED. Back in May I was thrilled to see Democrats pledging to not reauthorize Title V, one of many federal abstinence-only funding streams. Well, surprise surprise, yesterday Congress passed legislation extending Title V funding for abstinence-only sex ed through the end of the fiscal year. While mainstream media outlets were still reporting that […]

GUT NUMBERS. I’m a sucker for numbers, and using numbers to make an argument. In Iowa this week, Barack Obama and his campaign were using a new tactic for persuading Democratic caucus voters: Contrasting his position on Iraq in 2002 with Hillary Clinton’s vote that autumn by hanging some numbers on the decision to invade […]

HELLO, MACACA? A new website lets users submit political ringtones for anyone to download to their mobile phones. From a press release: RingTones08.com lets someone in Utah turn a political gaffe or gem into an original ringtone that someone in Manhattan can broadcast every time their cell phone rings – in the subway, at their […]