Month: December 2010

Bernstein adds a fairly obvious but important point to this debate:

[C]andidate weaknesses in the primary season are not necessarily weaknesses in November, and vice versa.  So any pro-choice candidate is incredibly weak in the Republican nomination contest, because pro-life groups will veto such a candidate, even though in the essentially impossible event that such a candidate was nominated, he or she might be strong in November.  At a more plausible level, we can talk about Mitt Romney's weaknesses in the caucuses and primaries, such as his less-than-fully-conservative past and the possibility that some Christian conservatives might be reluctant to vote for him on religious grounds.  But if he's the nominee, no one concerned about abortion on that side would prefer Obama's fully pro-choice position to Romney's perhaps insincere, perhaps surface-deep pro-life position.  And while it's vaguely possible that a handful of voters are so anti-LDS that they would prefer that Obama is reelected, it isn't going to be a large group. 

A reader writes:

Unfortunately, the pub culture in the UK is changing, and has been for years. 

Pubs have been closing at an alarming rate all over the UK.  Companies that own pubs were expected to be good investments during the recession as people gave up on more expensive forms of entertainment, but in fact pubs did terribly. There are still plenty of pubs and plenty of people going to them, but the old corner-pub-as-social-center model seems to be breaking down.

Another writes:

Americans often fail to realize that many "traditional" pubs in England are owned by larger firms (I'm looking at you, Youngs) and resemble franchise restaurants (Applebees, Chilis) here in the US. They may feel like a corner pub to the unfamiliar, but when you live in England and start to see the same black and white photos of the same "founders", you catch on to the gig.

I spent some time in Oxford and fell in love with the pub culture there. Back in the States, I had difficulty finding good pubs and good pints. You have to leave the major elite metro cities and head to the second tier cities to find the American pub. Atlanta, Boston, and Minneapolis have great pub cultures. Out west, Portland and San Fransisco are good too. I'd imagine Denver, Colorado has many pubs but I don't have any experience there. From there, head to smaller cities. (Ft. Collins, CO.; Athens, GA.) America has corner pubs, but they're not on every corner.

(A good rule of thumb is to look for pubs that specialize in Craft Beer or high gravity Belgian style beers. These are rarely part of the big distribution networks where the distributors demand a certain atmosphere to help sales.)

Another:

Europe is Americanizing, especially in Britain and Ireland as people move into far suburbs, commute further by car, and buy bigger houses. This has deeply hurt their pub culture. I wonder if the economic crisis will end the decline of pub culture. It'd be a small silver lining in a dark time.

(Photo: Carl de SouzaA/AFP/Getty Images)

Jonathan Cohn thinks fully repealing the bill is near impossible:

[A]dvocates of repeal have one extra liability that the law's architects did not — a lack of majority support even before the wrangling begins. As late as July 2009, well into the ugly legislative process, more than 50 percent of survey respondents were telling Gallup that they supported comprehensive health care reform. Previous polls frequently showed support to be even higher. By contrast, repeal starts with less public backing. In most polls, only around 40 percent of respondents say they want to get rid of the health law. And the number falls dramatically when pollsters tell respondents that repeal would mean giving up popular features like guaranteeing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

None of this means the Affordable Care Act is safe. Partial repeal strategies, like withholding the funds to implement the law, seem quite plausible. But wholesale repeal? It looks like a very difficult task.

Today on the Dish, Andrew protested and mourned the removal of David Wojnarovicz's video "A Fire In My Belly" at the behest of Bill Donohue. We tracked day one the DADT hearings, and awed at McCain's shameless flip-flopping. There were hints of a huge civil rights movement in the gay community (and not to advance marriage-lite) and for Hispanics. Frum countered Wilkinson on the DREAM act, and Scott Brown pleased his state across party lines and may vote to repeal DADT. Andrew insisted anti-Semitism wasn't raging in Adams Morgan, Douthat compared Assange to al Qaeda and Will Wilkinson reassured us leaks will happen with or without Assange. Timothy Garton Ash appreciated the candor of the cables, and American diplomats in Germany didn't care for the privacy of German citizens.

Palin obscured the economic reality for working class supporters, and even her supporters urged her to rise above her celebrity gossip status and actually address some policy arguments. Andrew advised Obama on his next big gambit, we sized up Bloomberg's shot at 2012, sniffed the blood in the water for Pawlenty, and got some historical perspective on past primary dwarves that have risen to the occasion. Stan Collender and Howard Gleckman plumbed the depths of deficit commission's pitch and Bernstein dug away at whether deficits matter more than just politically. The GOP was bipartisan in name only, and the west coast was impenetrable to the Republican tsunami.

The smug not only burned, it also bombed. Readers got wild and crazy on bicycle dates, nerds had similar startup ideas, and the suburbs killed American pubs. We asked the Partridge family to shut up and sing, and the spousal diaspora spread. Iraqi police dressed the part, Scott Morgan caught us up on the cannabis substitute ban, the pill could be affecting fertility, and Michael Agger wanted to mine Facebook's data to improve society, not just to fill the coffers of advertisers.

Chart of the day here, tweet of the day here, Malkin award here, email of the day here, quote for the day here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

–Z.P.

Clips of McCain at DADT hearings:

John McCain talks to Howie Kurtz:

His explanation [for supporting DADT]: “The Marine commandant is opposed to [dropping] Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I know for a fact the other three service chiefs have serious reservations.” As for their superiors, McCain casually mentions the commander in chief and defense secretary, “neither of which I view as a military leader.”

Chait's eyes widen:

Uh, isn't the message that John McCain does not respect civilian control of the military?

McCain said that troops should get "to make a judgment on who they want to serve with…" No wonder Gates bristled. Bernstein asks for clarification:

Does he really believe that?   Does he really believe that troops should get to choose who they want to serve with? Forget about civilian control of the military, and forget about the specific issue of DADT: does John McCain believe in in any notion of basic command structure?

Jeb Golinkin counters McCain's larger point:

 McCain points to the Marine Commandant (currently General James F. Amos) as evidence that the nation’s military leadership does not support repealing DADT.  Well, General Amos is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  But the nation’s highest ranking military officer is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen, who does support repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

And then of course, there is the biggest kahuna of them all, General David Petraeus.  General Petraeus has told the Senate Armed Service Committee that “the time has come” to repeal DADT. If Senator McCain opposes repeal, fine, but the nation’s top military leaders BOTH civilian and uniformed are in general agreement that it’s time for the policy to go.

(Hat tip: TDW)

Joel Wing updates us:

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has until December 25, 2010 to put together a ruling coalition. He has promised to do so with time to spare. The jockeying over the points system [to divide up government posts] doesn’t seem to make that likely. The ministries are being hotly contested, and the major lists want as many of them as they can possibly get. It’s already taken them eight months to just get to a power sharing agreement. It’s probably going to take some more hard fought talks over the coming weeks to work everything out, so a more realistic prediction for when a new Iraqi government is finally going to be created is early 2011. 

Scott Brown, the Republican senator from Massachusetts who won Ted Kennedy's old seat in a massive upset, seems to have a decent shot at re-election:

Brown is one of the most popular Senators in the country, with 53% of voters approving of his job performance and only 29% disapproving. He continues to have incredible appeal to independents, with whom his approval spread is 61/25. He also breaks nearly even among Democrats with 35% approving and 41% disapproving of what he's done so far. The only other Republican Senators PPP's polled on this year with that much appeal to Democrats are Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Lindsey Graham. What sets Brown apart from that trio is he's managed to generate that popularity across party lines without antagonizing voters in his own party- Republicans give him a 74/13 approval.

Given his comments at the hearing today and his political realities, Adam Bink thinks Brown might vote for DADT repeal:

If you read between the lines, Scott Brown may be a very real possibility (he announced his opposition to repeal over the summer, but has since said he would pay close attention to the report). His phrasing and even substance of questions, his body language, all are that of someone positioning himself to move.He asked for assurance of Secretary Gates, “you will not certify you feel the process can move forward without damage to safety, security of men and women serving, and that effectiveness to fight will not be jeopardized?” He mused about how he’s never asked whether veterans who have died in the line of duty, or gravely injured, whether they were straight or gay, and how he didn’t care. He asked a number of other thoughtful questions on timing, which units would be “integrated” first. He was even one of only four Senators left, with all three others (Levin, McCain, Lieberman) being a lot more out front on this issue than he. In other words, if I were someone concerned about my upcoming re-election who wanted to painstakingly make a case for why I’m switching positions, and ask for the kind of assurance that would make him and his constituents/supporters comfortable in their shoes with this, I would do exactly what Scott Brown did today.

Pelosi wins round one.

A snow covered deer is pictured in Knowle Park in Kent, southern England on December 1, 2010. Britain's transport links with the rest of the world were disrupted by the early winter snowfall as key airports closed Wednesday and international Eurostar train services were cut. London Gatwick Airport, Europe's eighth busiest passenger air hub, was closed until at least 6:00 am (0600 GMT) Thursday as staff worked on clearing the two runways. By Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images.