Ezra Klein

Thomas Freedman explains that an increase in the minimum wage should be coupled with an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit. It will be interesting if, now that the minimum wage bill is passed, all the conservatives who’ve been talking up the EITC to head off the wage increase still agree that we need […]

I have weak teeth. Always have. My father has weak teeth, my mother has weak teeth, and I, their dutiful son, possess weak teeth. My sister doesn’t suffer from this malady. I remember a joint dentist appointment we had, where the doctor returned with our X-Rays, informed me that I had no cavities, and told […]

Poor Jonah Goldberg. That’s gotta smart. As Scott says: If you ever want to explain to someone what “disingenuous” means, I would suggest “analogizing someone to the famously anti-Semitic Charles Lindbergh in the context a discussion of whether a particular line of political discourse is anti-Semitic while claiming that the analogy doesn’t imply an attribution […]

Over at DailyKos, Devilstower makes a critical point. Forget the rhetoric. Forget the rationales. The Bush administration is trying to start a war with Iran. They’re littering the ground with trip wires and executive orders and provocations and commands, each making war likelier than the last: if you wanted to start this war, can you […]

Ankush, responding to the Times profile of Anna Wintour, writes: Vogue is the leading fashion magazine in the country (perhaps the world) and exerts an enormous amount of influence over the industry with its coverage. That the magazine’s editor is using that leverage for personal favors and to affect the dynamics of the industry she’s […]

I don’t really believe she’s died. Can you imagine the savage mockery she’d heap on Death, what with that ridiculous cowl, anachronistic scythe, and anorexic-chic figure? And she would have never sat still long enough to be rowed across the River Styx. I assume she got tired of kicking the Democratic Party’s ass, so she […]

This 1995 profile of Barack Obama the community organizer is about the most illuminating article I’ve read on the man. What’s striking, as others have mentioned, is how much of Obama shines through: His words tumble forth in the same complex, inspirational, deeply intelligent paragraphs we know and love, his thoughts turn to unity and […]

To add weight to Joe Klein’s suspicion that money matters less and less, The National Journal‘s Patrick Ottenhoff took the FEC disbursement forms, calculated the total amount spent by candidates in 2006, divided by the votes they amassed, and came up with how much each candidate spent per vote. “Richard Tarrant (R-VT) spent by far […]

I know all the other blogs have it, but I don’t think you can repost Joe Biden’s description of Barack Obama enough: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” The first. What’s about Oprah? Or […]

These points on the money primary, coming from the other Klein, are sound: I think that [money is] less important than it’s been in recent campaign cycles for several reasons. I mean, why do politicians feel compelled to raise gazillions? To buy television advertising, mostly negative…Negative advertising, which was used overwhelmingly by Republicans, didn’t seem […]