Authors Mike Kimel and Michael Kanell in US News and World Report
Authors Mike Kimel and Michael Kanell use data to turn some commonly held assumptions on their head in interview The ‘Conservative’ Reagan and Other Political Myths Dispelled with reporter Zach Miner.
In their book Presimetrics: What the Facts Tell Us About How the Presidents Measure Up on the Issues We Care About, Kimel, who has built statistical software used by the military and NASA, and Kanell, who covers economics for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, use hard data to quantify and assess presidential performance on a variety of issues. Focusing on the presidencies from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush, and drawing on data from various government sources, they compare and rank presidential performance on issues such as taxes and healthcare. Kimel recently spoke to U.S. News about the merits of using data to assess presidents and why Ronald Reagan might not be as conservative as the public believes.
Better yet, a real economist. Sad world in which people sit around waiting for a biased view.
ilsm,
B-2 was canceled due to the Cold War peace dividend, not becuase of any problems with OT/DT. (I have a friend who flew almost every B-2 first flight, test pilot obviously, and he thought the plane was great). You need to revisit your history.
F-22 was not built in its original numbers. It was to replace, 1 for 1, the aging F-15 fleet. That would have been a 750+ aircraft buy. It was reduced down to what, 180 or so? A major reduction and still lives us with the aging F-15 problem. Which will probably be solved by just using F-35s…
No argument from me on the A-12. F-18 E/F was built to accomplish the mission the A-12 was suppossed to handle.
C-17, which I have flown on numerous times, is an outstanding aircraft that will serve a long time (like the old C-141s of yesteryear). Your argument with it is not with the jet its with the US strategic posture which its a part of.
You keep pushing an isolationist agenda (which would not require a C-17 capability or the F-18 E/F) that is not anywhere in the mainstream. Like I pointed out years ago, you sounded like a disgruntled whistle-blower. Now I know I was right.
If you want to go after the problems in US Defense acquisition. Go for it. there are plenty of problems there. No one argues with that. What they push back on is your idea that the US militia can defend the country.
And the first rule of whistle-blowing is the same as killign the King – you get one chaqnce and you better not blow it. Or expect to get sidelined and your career killed (and word gets out – you become unhirable). But you know all that…good luck with your book!
Islam will change
buff,
I’m afraid to ask. Its a slow process; we’re still at a stage where almost nobody has heard of the book. There’s been this mention on the online version of US News, Parade’s quiz, a radio show in Hartford, CT, briefly interviewed me, the Akron Beacon Journal mentioned the book in a couple of paragraphs, and Steve Benen mentioned the other day at the bottom of a post that he’s reading the book and enjoying it. I believe that’s the sum total of the public mentions so far.
Hopefully some of the other things we’ve been trying for will pan out and a bit more publicity will come our way.
At bricks and mortar stores… we’re still an unknown quantity. Based on what I’m hearing, many or most Borders carry two copies of the book. At B&N its a mixed bag – some carry it, most don’t, which is also true of most independent stores. We certainly haven’t merited any displays in prominent places in stores anywhere that I’ve heard, so buyers essentially have to be people who have heard of the book in some way.
Interestingly enough (given that the Dems do better on the economy), people who have gone out of their way to track me down by e-mail and praise the book have tended to be Republican. One comment I got really floored me – “if people can still ask questions like this there’s still hope for this country.”
I guess it helps that we’re trying very hard to put tools into the public’s hands.
Mike,
Well hopefully you’ll break out here shortly. I finally got my book last Friday (!). I had it bundled with some other items that took longer to ship and so it got hung up. Unfortuanately I have not got past the cover. School started and I teaching my oldest AP Calc and AP Stats, plus helping somewhat with his AP Bio homework. Then the buff-daughter is going nuts trying to learn geometry and just can’t grasp any word problem put to her. (but its great watching her ‘light up’ when she suddenly get’s it!).
And I have two chapters left in my last book (“This Time its Different’), and now footbal season has started…aaaarrggh. I think that leaves ‘free time’ between 1 and 1:30 am….
Islam will change
Ha! So Reagan is explained by being closet FDR….Got It!
jimi,
Sonny, I was paying taxes when Reagan closed a lot of my deductions: no more interest deducted for my Corvette payment, no more interest deducted for the balances on my credit cards keeping gas and women in my vette.
And no more middle class deductions not supported by the Realtor lobby!!
But on the other side he my cut marginal rates, so I was good.
Yeah, the gipper was FDR for rich guys and war profiteers.
No tax increases just close a bunch of middle class deductions.
Jimi,
I assume you haven’t read the book, but have spent enough time here at AB to know that if I’m stating something, I have the data to show it. We may differ about interpretation, but if I write something like “was the only President since 1952 to move money (and hence power) from the state and local governments to the Federal government in the absence of a war” you know I can back it up, right?
So, how do you interpret that combined with the debt thing? That is how you’d define a small government President?
buff,
The one thing that’s bothering me is on the jacket… somehow a word appeared in the print version of the jacket that wasn’t in any of the previous versions that I reviewed – apparently I built “essential” software for the military, etc. Essential? Of all the words to appear out of nowhere. Aaaargh.
little john,
Yup. I’m insured. I love my wife and kids, but I sure hope they don’t collect any time soon.