Author: Andrew Sullivan

An epic throwdown:

Series details here.

An improvised tour of the north of England reunites comedy favourites Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. In the style of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the story is fictional but based around their real personas.

Obama uses his Indonesia trip to remind Israel that US foreign policy has broader interests and goals at stake than enabling Netanyahu's governing coalition. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, a critical space for non-Jihadist Islam, a major counter-weight, with India, to China, and an emergent power. And resolving the Israel-Palestine issue would remove a profound obstacle to deepening America's ties and interaction with the wider Muslim world – a critical element in defusing Islamism.

David Frum insists that sooner or later conservatives will be forced to conclude that they should've cut a deal on Obamacare:

From a conservative point of view, there’s a lot not to like about the Democratic health care reform. I don’t like the new taxes to pay for it: a new tax on payrolls and a new tax on investment income. I don’t like the new burden on the states, in the form of higher Medicaid spending. I don’t like the plan’s steps toward price controls instead of price competition.

…But all those things I don’t like — they are all the law of the land. To correct them will require action by the House, Senate, and president. That’s tough at any time, tougher when Republicans announce that they have no intention to compromise on anything. No compromise means no deals. So instead, Republicans will fall back upon a Plan B, basically a series of stunts… They’ll refuse to appropriate funds to implement aspects of health care reform. They’ll call hearings to publicize problems with the law and complaints from those negatively affected. And at the end of two years, the law will still be there, more or less intact.

A fantastic column from Anne Applebaum nails the Republican choice: between "corrupt big spending Republicans" or the "shallow, hypocritical radicalism" of the Tea Party. It's also a useful reminder of the magical realism of Palin: she ran the most socialist state in the country and yet campaigns as a small government libertarian whose followers stand on their own two feet. In Alaska, they don't:

Taxpayers' money subsidizes everything from Alaska's roads and bridges to its myriad programs for Native Americans. Federal funding accounts for one-third of Alaskan jobs.

Imagine if the Democrats had minimal political talent (I know, but bear with me). Instead of buying into Palin's bullshit, they'd reveal who she actually is: a delusional former socialist who was content to have a third of her state's citizens on the federal payroll. Layer after layer of the Palin onion contain fantasy, lies, and fraud. She is a phony.

Some fascinating stuff (future MoDo column alert) from Indonesia here. Rather than selectively poring through the endless writings of authors Obama once read (Kurtz), or just fabricating racist rage (D'Souza), you can simply go back and talk to Barry's Indonesian friends if you really need a Rosebud. Yes, he grew up around extreme poverty, and his inner nerd was never far from view:

“It was a very poor area when the family came here,” said Coenraad Satjakoesoemah, 79, a retired airline manager and a neighborhood leader. “There were still dirt roads, only a few houses and lots of large trees.” … While the residents regarded Mr. Obama’s mother as a “free spirit,” Barry, who was chubby, was referred to as the “boy who runs like a duck,” said Mrs. Satjakoesoemah, 69.

We are reminded that, far from attending a Jihadist madrassa, he went to Catholic school:

Mr. Obama has spoken about growing up here and hearing the Muslim call to prayer, but Ms. Amirah said that since the school’s founding, everyone had hewed to the institution’s official religion. “Barry followed church services like everybody else,” Ms. Amirah said.

And then Indonesia's version of Sidwell Friends. And his nanny was a tranny:

His nanny was an openly gay man who, in keeping with Indonesia’s relaxed attitudes toward homosexuality, carried on an affair with a local butcher, longtime residents said. The nanny later joined a group of transvestites called Fantastic Dolls, who, like the many transvestites who remain fixtures of Jakarta’s streetscape, entertained people by dancing and playing volleyball.

This, however, is total Limbaugh bait:

In the compound, Mr. Obama often played with the two sons of the physician’s driver. One time, recalled the elder son, Slamet Januadi, now 52, Mr. Obama asked a group of boys whether they wanted to grow up to be president, a soldier or a businessman. A president would own nothing while a soldier would possess weapons and a businessmen would have money, the young Obama explained.

Mr. Januadi and his younger brother, both of whom later joined the Indonesian military, said they wanted to become soldiers. Another boy, a future banker, said he would become a businessman.

“Then Barry said he would become president and order the soldier to guard him and the businessman to use his money to build him something,” Mr. Januadi said. “We told him, ‘You cheated. You didn’t give us those details.’ ”

Douthat has no love for Crist, Specter, or Bayh:

All three were frequently praised for their moderation by credulous reporters, and their political difficulties were constantly cited as evidence that the American political system had gone haywire. But none of the three deserved their favorable ink, because none of them used their position as moderates constructively. Instead, they enter retirement as the most prominent exhibits in the case that the nation’s centrists need to share the blame, where our current difficulties are concerned, with the ideologues on either side.

 Stephen Budiansky admires FDR's temperament: 

The more I study history and human nature the more I find myself convinced that (all of the political pundits and business schools and self-help gurus notwithstanding) the essential qualities of leadership simply cannot be learned; I'm not saying they are genetic — it's hard not to believe that part of FDR's remarkable character, particularly his extraordinary blend of self-confidence, equanimity under pressure, and fellow-feeling, owed much to his personal struggles with polio — but that they do stem from intrinsic temperament and character more than any other factor.

That's the diet advice Rush Limbaugh has given his audience:

What have I told you about diet and exercise?  Exercise is irrelevant…. "How do you know all this?"  One of the reasons I know what I know is that I know liberals, and I know liberals lie, and if Michelle Obama's gonna be out there ripping into "food desserts" and saying, "This is why people are fat," I know it's not true.  "Rush, do you really believe that? It's that simple to you, liberals lie?"  Yes, it is, folks.  Once you learn that, once you come to grips with that, once you accept that, the rest is easy.  Very, very simple.  Now, my doctor has never told me to restrict any intake of salt, but if he did, I wouldn't.  I'd just spend more time in the steam or the sauna sweating it out. 

Political scientist Seth Masket ponders the Democrats' unpopularity:

Greg Koger, Matt Lebo, and Jamie Carson put out an article earlier this year showing that members of Congress get punished for voting too much with their parties. This is consistent my finding with Steve Greene that the health care vote cost supporters roughly 5 percentage points in the election and with Eric McGhee's finding that the stimulus vote and the cap-and-trade vote also took a few percentage points off the vote shares of their supporters.

Why do members get punished for voting with their parties?  

Because parties are not interested in pushing through popular legislation.  Parties have longstanding priorities (health care reform, tax reductions for the wealthy, etc.) that are molded and favored by the most active and passionate leaders within the parties.  These goals are priorities for the parties over many decades and do not wax or wane with public sentiment.  Indeed, in most cases, these priorities will run against public opinion.  After all, if everyone favored something, it would probably already be law – it wouldn't take a whole lot of energy by a unified party to press for it.

So, yes, the Democrats did suffer this year because of the poor economy.  But they also suffered because they actually used their majority to do something.

Michael Tesler takes the opposite position:

Pundits and politicians who are interpreting the midterms as a referendum on Obama’s agenda … would be wise to read the forthcoming book of MIT political scientist, Gabriel Lenz.  Lenz convincingly demonstrates that policies subjected to intense public debate rarely become more important determinants of citizens’ vote choices.  Instead, voters will more often first pick a candidate based upon partisan and performance factors and then adopt that politician’s views about high-profile policies.  So, for example, voters who decided to vote for Republican candidates in the midterms because of the poor economy would also be more likely to embrace that party’s position on health care reform.