publius

Boycott Utah

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by publius This seems like an excellent idea to me: Utah’s growing tourism industry and the star-studded Sundance Film Festival are being targeted for a boycott by bloggers, gay rights activists and others seeking to punish the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its aggressive promotion of California’s ban on gay marriage. It … Read more

Election 1, Kaus 0

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by publius The Latino vote is one of the biggest stories of the election. Kevin Drum notes that Obama’s general national swing was +9 from Kerry. The Latino vote, however, was +27. Anticipating this large swing the day before the election, Mickey Kaus (who has nothing much to say anymore other than to bash immigrants … Read more

Hot Dingell on Waxman Action

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by publius As you may have seen, Henry Waxman is making a rather audacious move to oust John Dingell from the House Commerce Committee. The big concern with Dingell (who’s been a powerhouse for decades) is that his allegiance to the automakers makes him an enemy of energy reform. A few thoughts on this. First, … Read more

An Avalanche of Foibles

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by publius Sounds like the oppo dump on Palin is coming. Carl Cameron sez: “Notwithstanding that there is to be an avalanche that will continue for many days now we’re told of story upon story of the foibles of Sarah Palin.” The fuller exchange is in the video below. Here’s a little teaser — Cameron … Read more

One Note of Caution

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by publius Not to be a buzzkill, but the next question is obviously whether Obama will be able to get anything “big” done. That turns on lots of factors, but two big ones are the Senate races and the nature of his popular victory (i.e., is it a blowout? will politicians feel pressured to follow … Read more

What Rove Hath Wrought

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by publius Tonight’s win is hard to put into words. The historical significance speaks for itself. But for all its rich history, tonight is also about far more than Barack Obama. Any way you slice it, the 2008 election should be seen as a massive repudiation of the George W. Bush administration. Karl Rove’s project … Read more

Election Thread

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by publius Let’s do this thing. UPDATE: Don’t want to jinx anything, but I’m happy right now. The NC Senate race is huge. That makes Minnesota even more huge. In KY, I don’t think Lunsford will catch him. Also, Fox called Ohio and then took it back. There should be some sort of intentional tort … Read more

Exit Poll Boycott

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by publius Tomorrow I plan to wake up and read the newspaper. Then I’m going to turn my computer off and restart it at 7 EST when the first polls close. Radio silence for me. Maybe I’ll take a stroll. Perhaps I’ll whittle. Maybe I’ll even start my Learn Spanish program.* But one thing I … Read more

Purgatory, Not Exile, for Lieberman

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by publius I expect the Dems to get 59 Senate seats — MN will break for Franken, but they’ll lose all three Southern races. Even if the Dems ultimately fall short of 59, it will be pretty close. And that raises the ever-annoying question — What to do with Lieberman? Obviously, he could very well … Read more

Speak Now Larry, Or Forever Hold Your Peace

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by publius Frickin’ Yglesias — I wanted to write this post today. Oh well, it’s very true and very funny: This would be an opportune moment for Larry Johnson to release the “whitey” tape. Larry Johnson deserves a lifetime wanker achievement award for his 2008 conduct. I think he’s now officially the biggest scumbag on … Read more

The Joshua Moment? Race and the ’08 Election

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by publius

Somewhat ironically, race has been the great unspoken story of the 2008 election. The Obama campaign avoids discussing it like the plague (though for understandable reasons). And the pundits have generally been quiet too – other than in the aftermath of the Pennsylvania speech Obama grudgingly gave.

As the reality gets closer though, it’s worth pausing to recognize what a tremendous milestone Obama’s election would represent in America’s long and complex racial history. Jack Shafer will probably think this post uncool, because it’s borderline sappy in places. But who cares. It’s a moment of enormous racial significance – and one that’s worth reflecting on.

At this point, I suspect some conservative readers are rolling their eyes, “here they go again on this race stuff.” In these readers’ defense, I know precisely where they’re coming from. In fact, many moons ago, I used to be one of them. My goal, though, is ultimately to make these very readers sincerely appreciate the racial significance of the election — and to persuade them why liberals are right to focus on it. Accordingly, I will first explore why I think conservatives are often skeptical of liberals’ perceived obsession with race. Afterwards, I’ll explain why this “obsession” is actually a noble and worthwhile effort. (Just to warn you, this is a long one).

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In Which I Get Sappy

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by publius I’ve got a longer post coming on the racial significance of the 2008 election, but this story is just amazing. Via MyDD, the Austin Stateman reports that a daughter (109 years old) of a former slave cast her ballot for Obama. It’s amazing on many levels, but it also reminds us that the … Read more

Joe Lieberman – Political Genius

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by publius Assuming things go as statistically predicted on Tuesday, it’s worth taking a moment to admire the sheer political idiocy of Joe Lieberman. Saying that he has a political tin ear is probably a bit generous. Whether we like it or not, one vital skill for politicians is knowing which way the political winds … Read more

Lady de Rothschild, Working Class Hero

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by publius McCain is sending the big guns to PA: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a top fundraiser for Clinton’s campaign, will spend several days speaking to Democrats on McCain’s behalf. “I think Pennsylvania could be a big surprise to the conventional thought in the Democratic Party,” Rothschild said. “Pennsylvania … Read more

Um, Wow

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by publius Via John Cole, I’ve honestly never seen someone (at that level) act like such a complete d*** on TV before. He’s attained some Platonic ideal of d***ness. I’m no PR coach, but I suspect the goal is to make something less than 100% of your audience detest you. Stick with Dungeons & Dragons … Read more

Exhibit 1,005: High-Risk Pools

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by publius

One of my hobbyhorses of late is to illustrate – at the institutional party level (i.e., the “sphere”) – that progressive policies are simply superior to conservative ones at this point in history. It’s not merely that I subjectively prefer the former, or that the dueling policy approaches present equally plausible options. It’s that recent events have vindicated progressive assumptions of the world, and illustrated why modern conservative policies are often based on factually inaccurate – or dreamworld – assumptions about how the world actually works. See, e.g., global warming, stimulus effectiveness, financial bailout, etc.

Today, let’s add high-risk pools to that list, because they illustrate this larger point perfectly. Yesterday’s WP examined Minnesota’s high-risk pool and explained why programs like these are central to McCain’s health care “policy.”

Here’s the nickel version. McCain’s proposal seeks to push more people into individual plans (rather than employer plans). The problem, however, is that lots of people would be disqualified on the individual market on the basis of, say, pre-existing conditions. In response, some states have established programs where the government subsidizes insurance companies to take on these higher-risk, high-cost individuals. McCain has made these pools a lynchpin of his larger plan – indeed, he has to, given that he’s otherwise doing literally nothing for people with pre-existing conditions. (Jonathan Cohn has a more extensive background on these programs here).

Sounds not terrible, right? Well, wrong. These high-risk pools are essentially big jokes. More precisely, the idea that high-risk pools adequately deal with the needs of the uninsurable is a joke. And it’s a joke for two reasons – (1) they have proven wretchedly deficient in practice; and (2) they are also a conceptually flawed idea. I’ll examine both after the jump. Take it to the chorus.

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I Surrender

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by publius Remind me to stop doubting the Obama campaign. I can’t seem to stop it — the doubt comes [start melody] regularrrr like seeeeeasons. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and each day publius doth worry about something stupid. Today’s worry was that the ad was overkill, that it was unnecessary, … Read more

Video Star, Unkilled

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by publius Interesting tidbit from today’s Communications Daily (via Lexis) on NBC’s Olympics ratings — and one that has implications for the current “white spaces” debate. In short, the Internets was good for TV: Providing more than 56 million video streams via Internet during the Beijing Olympics boosted rather than diminished viewing of the games … Read more

By Their Fruits, Ye Shall Know Who’s Right

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by publius Big news today from Afghanistan. The WSJ reported that the US is now “actively considering” direct talks with the Taliban to negotiate stemming the violence. The article notes that this idea is supported by McCain’s second best friend in the whole wide world – David the General (Petraeus). And it makes sense that … Read more

The Past Ain’t Prologue

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by publius The NYT explores the “risk and reward” of an expanded Democratic majority next session. It’s pretty much the same narrative that followed Pelosi’s rise to power — how will they manage to keep the liberal and conservative wings happy? (Pelosi, it should be noted, hasn’t had much of a problem on that front). … Read more

Mark Levin’s Cultural Revolution

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by publius Shark jumped over at the Corner: There is a cult-like atmosphere around Barack Obama, which his campaign has carefully and successfully fabricated, which concerns me. The messiah complex. Fainting audience members at rallies. Special Obama flags and an Obama presidential seal. A graphic with the portrayal of the globe and Obama’s name on … Read more

A Question

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by publius Why is Sarah Palin in Iowa today? (I’m not implying this is part of the new “rogue” 2012 strategy. Presumably, her stops are determined by McCain Central. But it just seems odd — it’s not like there’s a competitive Senate race there or anything).

Shoulders of Giants

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by publius Via the Moderate Voice, I saw Ben Smith passing along the following early voting story: For me the most moving moment came when the [black] family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got … Read more

Classy

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by publius I usually only read people like Riehl through the filter of John Cole and Tim F. But I saw (via Memeorandum) that Riehl wrote something about Obama’s grandmother, and assumed the worst. Turns out, I was right — it’s the worst: Man. I hope his numbers don’t start to drop. He might have … Read more

Boot Murtha

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by publius

John Murtha seems to be in real danger of losing his seat. The problem, as best I can tell, was Murtha’s bold mavericky strategy of calling his constituents racists and rednecks. In my five years of blogging, I’m not sure I’ve ever endorsed a Republican over a Democrat. So what the hell — I hope Murtha gets beat.

The main reason I oppose Murtha is that he’s corrupt. CREW, for instance, includes him as one of the few Democrats on the “20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress” (and they have further details there). It’s not just that he loves him some pork though — lots of people love pork, and I frankly don’t care all that much about earmarks anyway.

The problem with Murtha is the type of pork he pushes for — namely, massive bloated defense spending. One of the longer-term challenges for progressive Democrats is to limit the criminally large and bloated defense budgets that are squeezing out other priorities — and creating incentives for more aggressive hawkish policies (e.g., escalating tensions with China).

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Pickett’s McCain’s Charge

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by publius I don’t really understand the McCain camp’s Pennsylvania strategy. In particular, I don’t understand the logic of scaling back in Colorado while simultaneously going “all in” in a solidly Democratic state that has added a net of 600K registered Democrats since 2004. At this point, McCain is going to lose until there’s some … Read more

A Time to Reap

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by publius Sarah Palin, GOP Convention: I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. WP, “Obama’s September Haul”: The single biggest spike in online giving for the month came when the campaign took in $10 million between convention speeches by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the … Read more

The Theory of the Big Fundraising Model

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by publius Hilzoy made a key point about Obama’s fundraising — the massive number of contributions makes it less likely (not more) that any one group of donors will have excessive influence on him. I’ll even go a step further and argue that Obama’s fundraising model is superior to public financing. It achieves all the … Read more

Site Update

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by publius We’re currently working to get rid of the comment pagination (Typepad suddenly decided to limit the number of visible comments at any one time to 50). I put in a request, and then noticed Hilzoy had already done so. In short, we’re working on it, and we’ll get it fixed.

Noted Without Further Comment

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by publius From the Trail: Giving credit to a higher power for the day’s poll ratings, the Alaska governor told the roughly 500-person audience that things might be changing. “We even saw today, thank the Lord,” she said, looking upwards and raising her fist, “We saw some movement.” . . . Palin also made a … Read more