Will Blogs Kill Political Magazines?

Andrew Sullivan, who was editor-in-chief of The New Republic when he was 12 and now works at The Atlantic, notes that the websites of conservative opinion magazines National Review and The Weekly Standard get no more traffic than the top conservative blogs. So the competition for the opinion-reader is intense. And the financial edge of individual bloggers with relatively no overhead ...

House Republicans Move Right

I've seen this diagram on several blogs now: The upshot is that the House Republican leadership for the next Congress will be more "conservative" on one scale than in this Congress, with Whip Roy Blunt and Conference Chairman Adam Putnum being replaced by Eric Cantor and Mike Pence -- with the possibility that Minority Leader John Boehner will be challenged by ...

Whites Voted For Obama, Proving They’re Racist!

Larry Bartels examines the voting behavior of white Americans on Election Day and finds that, as he expected, we were very, very racist: According to the exit polls, Obama outpolled the previous Democratic nominee, John Kerry, among people from small towns and rural areas and among gun owners. He also did better than Kerry among white males, white Protestants, and white ...

Palin Last Nail in Republican Coffin?

Quite a few reports came out yesterday buttressing rumors that there were tensions between John McCain and Sarah Palin which caused a feud within the campaign team.   It's only fitting, I suppose, since the selection of Palin has highlighted and exacerbated a growing fissure within the Republican Party itself. Fox New's Carl Cameron dished last night about rumors that Palin was ...

Americans Are Liberal!

Matt Yglesias offers these Pew poll results as a rejoinder to those of us who think a win for Obama isn't a mandate for his policies. Says Matt, "The voters felt they had a choice between a liberal and a conservative, and felt they preferred the liberal and his policy agenda." Well . . . no. For one thing, most of the choices ...

Equality vs. Redistribution

Matt Yglesias presents this Gallup poll as evidence that Barack Obama is on the right side of the redistributionist issue while John McCain and Joe the Plumber are in the minority: Says Matt, "What you see here is that traditionally a large majority of Americans have favored spreading the wealth around." Well, no.  What you see here is that traditionally a large ...

Diplomacy Without Precondition

In my latest for New Atlanticist, "Preconditions, Preparations, and Posturing," I argue that Matt Yglesias, Kevin Drum, and perhaps even Nicholas Burns are misreading the now 16-month-old debate over Barack Obama's pledge to meet "without precondition, during the first year of [his] administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea."

Obama Losing Whites, Winning the Election?

Matt Yglesias points to a new ABC/WaPo survey showing the racial breakdown in the presidential race: Among all white voters, McCain leads Obama by 7 points, 52-45 percent; that, however, is a bit less than the average Republican advantage among whites in presidential elections. Obama makes it back with 95 percent of blacks, as well as clear majority support among Hispanics. Ezra ...

Palin’s Debate ‘Gaffes’

Matt Yglesias snarks, A lot of people are wondering who the “McClellan” character was that Sarah Palin was referring to, with many guessing that she’s been consulting long-dead failed Civil War General George McClellan for advice on Afghanistan. But another colleague suggested that she’s mentally combined General McKiernan, the commanding officer in Afghanistan, and David Kilcullen into a single ten-foot tall ...

Politics and Religion

Matt Yglesias observes, There’s I guess a convention in America that it’s impolite to talk about politics. That’s a convention that, I think, ultimately grows the level of ignorance in the country and advantages those who would take advantage of the public’s ignorance. People who are well-informed ought to discuss the issues with friends, family, and colleagues who may not be ...