Dana Goldstein

I just noticed today’s Brooks column, in which he endorses “a major infrastructure initiative” that he calls the “National Mobility Project.” The goal would be to update our transportation network to reflect the regional growth taking place across the U.S. Brooks’ solutions? “[C]ongestion pricing, smart highways, rescue plans for shrinking Midwestern cities, new rail and […]

According to research, only if the endorsement contradicts a reader’s perception of the paper’s political biases. In other words, the Chicago Tribune‘s endorsement of Obama is powerful (mitigated, I think, by the fact that it is his hometown paper). The New York Times‘ — not so much. Hat tip: Ryan Avent. —Dana Goldstein

Politico’s Mike Allen kicked off his influential Playbook email this morning with the following excerpt from the AP’s analysis of its recent poll: a stubborn wedge of people … somehow, are still making up their minds about who should be president. One in seven, or 14 percent, can’t decide or back a candidate but might […]

Just to be clear, the reason the story of Obama’s Boston relatives could blow up is because the aunt and uncle may be in the U.S. illegally, though there’s no proof of that. Even if they are undocumented, I have trouble believing this will become the much ballyhooed “October Surprise.” McCain has supported a path […]

The Times of London has discovered that Barack Obama‘s father’s half-sister, the woman he calls “Auntie Zeituni” in Dreams from My Father, is living in public housing in Boston. A second relative, “Uncle Omar,” described in the memoir as dropping out of touch with the Kenyan family after immigrating to the U.S., was apparently also […]

Ah, the silliness. —Dana Goldstein

Parental notification laws never really made sense to me. Let’s say you believe that abortion is a scary, potentially traumatic surgery, and parents should know if their daughter seeks one out. Isn’t birthing and raising a child equally anxiety-provoking, infinitely more permanent, and much more difficult in the long run? And yet, nobody suggests pregnant […]

The stem cell research proposal on the ballot in Michigan is quite moderate: It would allow stem cell lines to be drawn only from frozen embryos that would otherwise be discarded, and whose donors agreed the embryos could be used for that purpose. But Christian right opponents, calling themselves MiCAUSE (Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science […]

Unlike, Tim, I don’t really like this new Obama ad. It ridicules Sarah Palin for being inexperienced on the economy without mentioning her actual record. Instead, we’re treated to footage of one of her (in)famous winks, which makes her seem silly and effeminate without really explaining why she’s unqualified. —Dana Goldstein