Today on the Dish, Andrew live-blogged the most entertaining GOP debate in a long time and reconsidered Christianism in light of Martin Luther King Jr. Andrew noted Romney's former run-in with fiscal conservatism and the S&P but couldn't get over his plastic demeanor. We assessed Romney's defense of corporations as people, and readers didn't think Obama would attack his Mormonism. Pareene sunk his teeth into Rick Perry as a neo-Confederate sympathizer, the Bush comparisons continued, while the neocons lined up to drool. Bachmann looked nuts in other Newsweek photos, and Seth Mandel hyped Perry's popularity over Palin, while she careened her bus tour towards Iowa.
In national affairs, Andrew fisked Santorum's abstract paper towel/ napkin analogy, GOProud bowed to Queen Coulter, the radical homosexual activist agenda marched on, and marriage equality seemed sturdy in New York. Chait defended the Wisconsin recall election, and one black Limbaugh listener got fed up with his exploitation of racial stereotypes. Liberals continued to harp on Obama's faults, Fareed defended Obama's common sense fiscal approach, and Sen. DeMint earned a Hewitt award for calling Obama's administration the most anti-American in memory. Drezner feared a global Depression, independents would axe infrastructure spending but Brian Fung argued we need better polls to truly judge what people want.
On the international front, Andrew addressed cries from the anti-war left, Syria's political system was forever changed by the protests, and Ahmed never mentioned beards. Celeste Ward Gventer attacked US interventionism run amok, and the US is complicit in the fighting in Somalia. In the UK, some rioters had tried to march peacefully without a word from the press, a reader returned to a 2006 Cameron speech, and apparently austerity makes riots more likely.
Some readers tried to live without cash, and another accused credits cards of being rigged. Alan Jacobs argued our real life personas are easier to track than we think, a former Wikipedia editor examined conflicts on the site, and Norm Geras critiqued Terry Eagleton's definition of evil. Selfish elites should learn a lesson from past fiscal crises, male infertility was kept quiet, and Southerners encouraged their fellow liberals to confront the occasional bigotry of family and friends. Restaurant websites may suck because menus are delivered in PDFs for the actual dining experience, and Angry Birds flung themselves at hockey masks.
Creepy ad watch here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.
–Z.P.
The Dish 