Jamelle Bouie

November of 1974, when he was elected for the first time: Ezra Klein calls this “the most devastating ad of the season.” Meh. It’s not that it’s a bad spot but that it’s the kind of ad whose reception is mostly determined by political circumstances. Simply put, Brown‘s throwback to the past is charming because […]

Ari Berman wants fewer Blue Dogs in the Democratic coalition: […] Democrats would be in better shape, and would accomplish more, with a smaller and more ideologically cohesive caucus. It’s a sentiment that even Mr. Dean now echoes. “Having a big, open-tent Democratic Party is great, but not at the cost of getting nothing done,” […]

Daniel Larison is still bearish on the odds that Republicans will win a majority in November: At this point, it appears that Republicans will gain 35 seats. If all of the toss-ups broke for the Republicans, they could realistically gain 41, which would be just enough, but all of them are not going to break […]

(Blaustein/The Value of a Dollar) How much food can you buy for one dollar? With the help of his camera, Jonathan Blaustein traveled New Mexico to find out: It was a cheeseburger that initially encouraged Mr. Blaustein, 36, to pursue his project, “The Value of a Dollar.” When the economy was in the midst of […]

Republicans should heed David Frum‘s point about generalizing from November’s elections: Be very careful about projecting forward from the 2010 congressional results to the 2012 presidential vote. These elections almost occur in two different countries. Be very careful about assuming that Republican success in 2010 signifies that Republicans have overcome the longer-term problems that I’ve […]

Last week, as part of its “Back to the Mac” presentation, Apple announced that it would be opening an “App Store” for the next iteration of OS X, Lion. Like the iPhone and iPad App Stores, this one would give users the choice of quickly installing programs from a central, Apple-controlled database. The catch, for […]

African Americans are overrepresented in the nation’s prisons and jails, and it’s common to attribute some of this to systemic forces; poverty, poor schools, inadequate legal representation, drug-enforcement policies, and sentencing laws. It’s not that black people are more prone to criminality; it’s that they are more likely to find themselves affected by the things […]

Last night, CNN aired a documentary on the financial standing of African American families, that featured this inspired plea on the problem of debt by Pastor DeForest B. Soaries Jr., the senior pastor at the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey. Here’s the promo: I don’t have much of an opinion […]

Bill Clinton, The Washington Post reports, is “baffled” by Democrats’ inability to define themselves and their message: Bill Clinton is baffled. The former president’s friends say he is in disbelief that in the closing weeks of the midterm campaigns Democrats have failed to articulate a coherent message on the economy and, worse, have allowed themselves […]

I try to avoid commentary on Sarah Palin — because she really isn’t that interesting — but Jonathan Martin‘s piece on her political operation is worth reading, if only for the assurance that Palin will never sit in the Oval Office: According to multiple Republican campaign sources, the former Alaska governor wreaks havoc on campaign […]