How Divided Are We? Pt I

Elections, which present us with stark binary choices, naturally tend to divide rather than unite the American public. Supporters become so fervent that they can’t imagine how someone could support the other guy.  Rather than assert any shared common ground, the candidates themselves reinforce their distinctions while paradoxically crawling toward the middle ground where any [...]

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Feed the Beast

I first learned of The Daily Beast when Christopher Buckley choose it as the forum from which to endorse Barack Obama. At the time, I just assumed the Daily B was an esoteric conservative site which I had managed not to intersect in my peripatetic internet jaunts. However, soon afterwards, its founder Tina Brown, former [...]

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Does Racism Skew Polling?

As Obama has begin surging in the polls, I’ve become worried that the numbers might be overstating his support. More specifically, I’ve wondered how racism might affect polling. Are people lying? Are people not being honest with themselves? That voters with no intention of voting for Obama are afraid of appearing bigoted seems plausible. I [...]

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Clueless in St. Louis

Courtesy of PoliticalWire:

If you didn’t watch the debate [you should], you won’t recognize just how apt this chart is. Frequently Palin simply ignored the moderator’s question and rambled on whatever topic she elected (or answered the question with a phrase and spent the remaining 85 seconds addressing a more comfortable topic like energy). The media, [...]

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Main Street Mirror

In a NYtimes op-ed, Bethany McLean asks the question we’ve all been asking: Who’s to blame for this mess? In a balanced response, rather than just point the proverbial finger at Wall Street, she also considers the role borrowers played:
But who made the decision to take on that mortgage she couldn’t really afford? Who lied [...]

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