Today on the Dish, Andrew doubled down on his diagnosis of Romney's terminal ailment, dissented from Obama's "Social Darwinism" label for Ryan's budget, checked in with the economic forecasters about the unemployment rate during the general, tried to wrap his brain around Santorum's motivation for staying in, and was wowed by Mitt's ideological rigidity. We profiled Santorum dead-enders, patiently explained to them that the race was over, scoured GOP turnout numbers during the competitive part for clues about the general, guessed at what determined elections, ran down the reasons no liked Romney, clarified that he wasn't "moderate" in any meaningful sense, and pooh-pooed the idea that veeps can swing their home states. The Jewish vote remained safely in the D column (shenaniganry like this notwithstanding), the right's picture of Obama embodied another James Baldwin quote, Obama failed to prepare for releasing his inner Alinsky in term 2, too few women ran for Congress, and dogma poisoned parties. Ad War Update here.
Andrew also debated Maggie Gallagher at Washington and Lee in front of an overwhelmingly pro-equality crowd, issued a correction on his Newsweek cover (related reader thread here), and blasted Netanyahu's settlement legalizations (companion post here). Game of Thrones explained our world, Mad Men viewers/readers sounded off about our psychoanalysis of its popularity, YA books were (maybe) OK for adults, and Bully's bullies were unelected and unaccountable industry types. We weighed the relative merits of pageant momes and tiger moms, worked on understanding how to parent an autistic child, thought about donating a kidney to save a stranger's life, wondered if the dead deserved privay, and listened to reader feedback on cremation vs. burial. Weddings were overpriced, pink slime wasn't that different from normal meat, baseball had some political merits, and pot got some readers to thinking. Ask Jonah Anything here, Cool Ad here, Quote for the Day here, Yglesias Nominee here, Moore Nominee here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.
– Z.B.
The Dish 