There is a strange meme in the blogsphere—most recently made in comments here by Movie Guy—that Obama “should have a double-digit lead over McCain at this stage as has been the case with previous presidential primaries.” So I went searching for double-digit leads among two-person Presidential races in the past several elections. August 2004 (Bush […]

“On days like this, I wonder if I’m still a Republican.“ I gave up on the Party long ago; I gave up hope when a (very) distant relative wrote an op-ed for the NYT on why he would not support impeachment in 1998, and was attacked by the party for the next few years, before […]

Soc Sec XXXVI: $17 Trillion Backward Transfer was a response to a comment by Jim Glass (scrivener.net) to a post by Andrew Biggs. Andrew responded with a new post attempting to rebut my argument. You can see the whole thing at Responding to Angry Bear: Where does $17 trillion come from including my response to […]

Roger Ailes notes that Tim Kaine (D-VA) is the frontrunner for Dem VP, while KathyG (whose post on Cass Sunstein is a must-read) notes that Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) appears likely to be McCain’s choice, likely ensuring one ovation at the Minneapolis convention. Hmm. The man who presides over his state being described as “the state […]

The best comment I’ve seen on a blog in a long time. That is why he gets the big bucks.

So the good news yesterday (h/t Felix) is that, even as he was voting to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment, Barack Obama urged a change to bankruptcy law. The devil is in the details (the “median cost” of a home in NY State won’t keep anyone living in their house in Westchester or even Rockland County, […]

UPDATE: Brad DeLong lists some of the Usual Suspects who are Not in the Line-up. John McCain’s 300 economists who support his Jobs for America Plan (via Tyler Cowen, non-sociopath, who provides an appropriate context for the list) includes one person, an Ike Brannon, whose affiliation is listed as “Department of the Treasury” and who, […]

UPDATE: NYT Obituary here. Some book cover images added. Two years ago at Readercon, I found myself doing some hero-worship in the Green Room. Friday, we had discovered that my piece on Jorge Luis Borges was the first of the appreciations of that year’s Memorial Guest of Honor. (I assume this was because of its […]

Barack Obama has been reading the Wall Street Journal.

But it’s difficult to argue with the rest of this piece. Now I qualify as Gloom and Doom member?