Month: March 2012

Rick Perlstein argues that Santorum's snob comments have a nugget of truth to them:

Few of us take seriously enough the moral wisdom of the great populist leader William Jennings Bryan, who said in the early twentieth century, a time when only six percent of Americans graduated high school, "I fear the plutocracy of wealth, I respect the aristocracy of learning, but I thank God for the democracy of the heart that makes it possible for every human being to do something to make life worth living while he lives and the world better for his existence in it."

Do you? Does Barack Obama? Not exactly.

"The administration has done a good job of talking about, and even funding, career training for high-school graduates," says education expert Dana Goldstein of the New America Foundation. "What they will not do very much is talk about or fund career training for teens, even though there is good evidence that if you don't offer career and technical training via the public schools, you may lose people forever." A democracy of the heart that acknowledges there are simply some people who will never step into an academic classroom post-high school, and that this is alright, seems a bridge-to-the-twentieth-century too far for our schooling-mad politicians these days.

Kevin Drum joins in:

American high schools used to be big suppliers of vocational education. But in the 70s and 80s, the practice of "tracking" — placing the smart kids in chemistry classes and the not-so-smart kids in shop classes — came under withering assault. There was pretty good reason for it, too, since tracking really did have some pernicious effects. … But I'm with Dana and the Ricks: not everyone either can or wants to go to college. We never needed to destroy the village in order to save it, and there are ways of addressing the ills of tracking without losing its benefits at the same time.

Friday on the Dish, Andrew demolished the image of Palin-as-naif some saw in Game Change, knocked down Mitt's fantasy foreign policy, and addressed a challenge to his view of Romney as-weak-candidate. We guessed Romney might run the world like Clinton, noticed some glitches in Mittbot's Southern programming, watched him rise in Mississippi, saw Alabama tighten, charted Santorum's unlikely path to victory, and listened to an argument that the horse race was effectively over. Some candidateds got better bang for their buck than others, most independents weren't really independent, Kucinich wasn't missed, and the economy put Obama's long-game policy accomplishments on the firing line.

Andrew also thought through Derrick Bell's influence on Obama, applauded TNR's new owner Chris Hughes, and defended his "cocksucking" label for metzitzah b’peh and a similar Afghan practice. We checked on the web reax to the job report, worried about a coming slowdown, puzzled over the GOP's big meh about Eisenhower, noted some ridiculous chutzpah from Johns Yoo and Bolton, pushed back against the idea that left commentators don't take hits from feminists for misogyny, and aired a revealing story about physicians and marijuana from our Urtak on the Cannabis Closet. The prohibition lobby protected police profits, prescriptions for birth control stigmatized the pill, and a judge sentenced a man to Facebook apologies. #Kony2012's leaders fired back at critics, marriage evolved, and Cartman-style parenting failed. CPAP became affordable, films became too nakedly expensive to be fun, and PETA comment threads were always predictable. Hewitt Nominee here, a really revealing Chart of the Day here, VFYW here, FOTD here, and MHB here.

By Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

Thursday on the Dish, Andrew read the above cartoon as harbinger of a nasty campaign to come (fouler follow-up here), mocked Bachmann's lunatic attack on health care, picked out the insurance mandate as an issue Santorum could get traction on, advised Newt to get out to get back at Romney given the former's polling, and flagged Obama's rising numbers versus Mitt. We rolled our eyes at Mitt's faux-policies, explained why his "Southern Problem" was really a national problem, listened to an argument for Rick's front-runner status…in 2016, and assessed the Breitbart "bombshell" about Obama's past met principally with derision. Moderates were overrated, heath care may have cost the Dems the House, and SuperPACs couldn't really make up for campaign fundraising deficits. Ad War Update here.

Andrew also rubbished an Iran war on just war theory grounds, caught an egregious instance of theo-Catholicism producing a made-uptheological argument to attack health care reform, noticed another problem with traditional male circumcision (follow-up here), and wondered if Tony Woodlief was the face of a Koch-run Cato. We wondered if Obama lost by winning on Iran, cautioned against a Syria intervention to spite Iran, and surveyed the discussion on and backlash to the #Kony2012 campaign. Readers responded to the Urtak poll on the Cannabis Closet in droves and pushed back against Andrew on Limbaugh. Libertarians were challenged on the consistency of their opposition to the Kochs, homophobia wasn't natural, hate crime laws were ineffective, and sodomy laws were about criminalizing gayness. TSA scanners failed, journalists experimented with 99 cent pricing, apologies seemed like status symbols to some, wine conoisseurs had crazy-sensitive taste buds, and freezing cold beer tricked you into thinking squirrel piss – er, PBR – tasted similar to quality brews. Yglesias Nominee here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

Wednesday on the Dish, Andrew endorsed Santorum as the best candidate to heighten the GOP's contradictions, explained how Romney – and not Obama – wanted to make the US into Europe, guessed that lying was Mitt's first resort, and wondered what would happen if Newt actually followed through on his pledge to quit if he lost Alabama and Mississippi. We pulled reax to Super Tuesday (hilarious follow-up here and above), examined whether the media would start calling Romney out when he lied, connected Romney to Rush, unearthed a new explanation for why Santorum turned off Catholics, played the sucker's game of predicting Newt's next move, and saw Paul's delegate strategy struggle. The popular vote mattered, the GOP was likely screwed without more Hispanic voters, campaigns struggled with text messages, and the election of 1896 was craaaazy. Ad War Update here.

Andrew also reflected on his (long since rejected) offer to join Opus Dei, stood his ground on the Limbaugh boycott (follow-up here), peered into Netanyahu's psyche, and flagged some concerns about ruling out a containment policy for Iran. A brave Iranian girl uploaded some subtle resistance against the regime to YouTube, the Republican Persian obsession excluded other nuclear threats, and drones did more than you think. We watched Rush stroll into a trap on contraception, noted some parallel misogyny on the left, charted one way that the pill's price might rise, updated you on the rising marriage equality tide in Maine, aired more reader debate on posthumous baptism, and tracked with the Kochtopus tentacles reaching for Cato. The GOP caught up on prison reform, high gas prices weren't so bad, and the food stamps for soda discussion moved forward. The iPad helped construction, tablets spread far and wide, apps outsourced chores, a YouTube guy broke down viral videos, unfriending on Facebook surged, and the web photoshopped Michelle Obama. Quote for the Day here, AAA here, Cool Ad here, Yglesias Nominee here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

Crockett, California, 11 am

Tuesday on the Dish, Andrew liveblogged Stupor Tuesday's election returns, previewed Mitt's nastiness, and delved into Romney's Christianism. We wondered if Paul's failure to win a state actually hurt him, found a defense against the anti-caucus consensus, looked at the primary from China, and were wowed by Obama's Latino and organizational advantages. Ad War Updates here and here.

Andrew blasted the Emergency Committee for Israel's campaign against dissenters and worried that Netanyahu had already decided to go to war. Analysts hoped diplomacy could head off the rush to war with Iran, "Going the full Cantor" on Israel became a thing, Obama went on offense on Iran, Eric Holder sorta clarified when Obama could kill you, and the Anglosphere did well for itself.

Finally, Andrew weighed in on a recent debate on the social construction of race and expressed some concerns about the Boycott Rush campaign. Readers disputed the size of Limbauh's audience and the implications of the pill for women's equality in the workplace were extraordinary. We surveyed the debate over the Cato vs. Koch libertarian throwdown, accounted for ridiculous American healthcare spending, performed a similar maneuver for skyrocketing college tuition, and took in advice from Eeyore intended for Bernanke. Money corrupted, Football violence shocked (some), post in-vitro embryos puzzled, academics googled, and a hippo pooped. Chart of the Day here, AAA here, Yglesias Nominee here, Quote for the Day here, VFYW contest winner here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

Monday on the Dish, Andrew started a "Big Lies of Mitt Romney" feature, pointed out Joe Scarborough's delayed acknowledgement that Andrew was right about the birth control debate, (unfavorably) compared Romney's polling to John Kerry's, and connected Romney's polling slump to the contraception contretemps. We saw the establishment line up behind Mitt, heard Santorum's bankruptcy plea, examined the GOP's viability with independents, and discovered that Republican support among both female and single voters was in jeopardy. We geared up for Super Tuesday (delegate count explained here), Romney seemed poised to win big enough, and Mitt met Mr. Burns.

Andrew also weighed in on the Koch hostile takeover at Cato and kept an eye on the AIPAC conference and prospects for war with Iran – here, here, here, here, and here. Putin blatantly stole Russia's election and Saudi women were banned from Olympic competition. We broke down Dittohead demographics as GOP leaders became suddenly mealy-mouthed, continued the food stamps and soda debate, wondered if abortion could be merciful, and aired a dissent on posthumous baptism. TV joined the Internet age, big corporations loomed, people of the future looked likely to lie to their iPhones, food sensors told you if your dish had gone bad, jeans were amazing technology, and a reporter exposed the sordid reality of online shopping. People remembered faces well but not so much names, Faulkner eulogized Camus, whaling economics were a hot topic, and mixing up routines generated creative results. Marriage depended on monogamy, the art trade was rigged, jury duty was often worthwhile, and the Chevy Volt failed to meet high expectations. Cool Ad Watch here, Malkin Nominee here, AAA here, Quote for the Day here, Hewitt Nominee here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here. 

– Z.B.

Douthat thinks so:

While there are still scenarios in which the frontrunner ends up 50-100 delegates short of the magic number at the end of primary season, it would take a truly extraordinary turn of events (a huge scandal, say) to deny Romney the nomination at this point. The chaos-at-the-convention scenarios were almost plausible pre-Michigan, but they only made sense in a world where the leading candidate ended up well short of the necessary delegates. Now Romney is on track to win at least a clear plurality, and if he goes to the convention with over a thousand delegates, Jeb Bush isn’t going to sweep in and swipe the nomination out from under the man who won the most primary-season votes. It just … isn’t … going … to happen.

A woman listens as Douglas Wigdor, the lawyer representing Nafissatou Diallo, the Guinean maid who alleged sexual assault against former IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, addresses students at Cambridge University Faculty of Law in Cambridge, eastern England, on March 9, 2012. Students at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University defended inviting Strauss-Kahn to speak on Friday, as the disgraced ex-IMF chief faced angry protests. By Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images.

Regina Rini thinks through the ethics of a sentence where a man was forced to either go to jail or "post an apology – one written for him by the magistrate – on his Facebook wall every single day for one month":

People see their social media profiles as extensions of themselves, in a way that they do not see a traditional letter, even one issued in their name. It therefore seems that much more threatening to be compelled to utter someone else’s words through Facebook.

Hence [great] outcry directed at [defendent Mark] Byron’s enforced apology. In fact, I’m inclined to think that the outcry reveals an overly sensitive response. It isn’t entirely accurate to suggest that Byron was compelled to make claims he rejects. Presumably the magistrate’s intention was to permit Byron to make a sincere apology, and provided him with the text in order to avoid mealy-mouthed deflection. If Byron disputes the substance of the remarks, he ought not publish them. He ought to accept his alternative punishment: jail time. He has, after all, been found in contempt of a court order keeping him from threatening and abusive behaviour. According to reports, he is being justly punished – he has simply been given the opportunity to limit that punishment by exhibiting contrition.

Christopher Orr describes the new big-budget Disney flick John Carter as having "a clear understanding that, at the end of the day, we are there to have fun." Stephanie Zacharek wonders if that's possible anymore:

I had fun at John Carter. Just not $250 million worth of fun, which leads us to the central and vexing problem: Moviegoing pleasure can no longer be casual. We’re now acutely aware of how much every movie cost, how much every studio – in this case, Disney – has riding on every given project. “What does Disney need to make its money back?” becomes the overriding question, when what we really should be asking is, “Did you see how John Carter slashed his way out of that big, blubbery whatsis and came out all blue and shit?”

Information Is Beautiful created a fascinating interactive chart that displays the profitability of recent films. Relatedly, Chris Lee ponders the rise and fall of Eddie Murphy's career:

With the notable exclusions of Dreamgirls and the Shrek movies, you’d have to go all the way back to 1999’s Bowfinger, costarring Steve Martin, to find a Murphy movie that (a) didn’t suck and (b) also managed to turn a profit at the box office. So given the dire commercial prospects facing his latest film, can Murphy ever emerge from movie jail? Can he recover from the impending “let us never speak of this again” failure of A Thousand Words?

Dino Grandoni captions:

Over the last three decades, liberals have been banished from the G.O.P., while Democrats who vote regularly with conservative Republicans have also disappeared. On the edges, sometimes that's happened by switching sides (on the 1994 chart, the most conservative Democrat, Sen. Richard Shelby, switched parties the next year, while Sen. James Jeffords, the most liberal Republican, switched parties in 2001.)  But the middle has also been a politically dangerous place to be. 

Spot on.

Irin Carmon contends, contra Powers and Gillespie, that left-wing commentators who say sexist things get pushback in a fashion that doesn't happen on the right:

Powers claims in one breath that they’re allowed to go on insulting women but then says that Erica Jong got rudely mocked by Matt Taibbi for … calling him out for sexism. She fails to mention how Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore were targeted by a feminist campaign demanding an apology for their dismissal of the women who accused Julian Assange of rape. Or how much fire Chris Matthews took from feminists — including in this space – for how he talked about Hillary Clinton. It would take about eight seconds of Googling (I’m counting the typing) to find women on the left excoriating Bill Maher for sexist insults aimed at Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Powers throws these women a bone at the very end — but then dismisses them.

David Leonhardt puts a damper on today's jobs report:

Why do economists expect growth to slow? The warm winter has probably pulled some spending forward into the last few months and will reduce spending in coming months, says Joshua Shapiro, an economist at MFR Inc. in New York. Rising oil prices also play a role. So does the continuing debt overhang, which makes a sustained recovery difficult.

None of these forecasts should be taken as gospel, of course. Maybe the gross domestic product numbers are wrong and will be revised upward in coming months, as government economists receive more data about the economy’s condition. Maybe the recent job gains will lead to a surge in confidence that lifts spending above expected levels.

But the most likely path includes a slowdown in job growth. It’s easy to forget that on a day with a jobs report as positive as this one.