Evan Bayh - At the moment, this is the choice I'm most worried about, because Bayh does really seem to be on Obama's short shortlist. I think he'd be an awful choice, and not just because he's a senator from a state (Indiana) with a Republican governor. Evan Bayh is one of the biggest Democratic corporate 'hos in the senate -- he's "fiscally conservative," voted for the bankruptcy bill, is a DLC Dem all the way. He is literally one of the Wall Street Journal's favorite Democrats. He also voted for the Iraq War and is quite hawkish overall. On top of all that, he brings nothing to the table in terms of being personable, being a good speaker, etc. Someone I know who met him said he comes across as completely plastic -- MItt Romney, he said, has more authenticity and soulfulness. If Barack picks this dude, it's going to be a very long four (or eight) years. Let's hope he has the good sense to choose someone else instead.Fafblog, of course, has a more cynically humorous version of a similar list.
JOE BIDEN:...
Pros: one of the Senate's oldest and most respected experts in the field of Joe Biden; vast bullshit reserve could be tapped for its methane, powering nation for decades; fondness for partition and ethnic cleansing could be a valuable asset during the Second American Civil War of 2013
Cons: as a wholly-owned subsidiary of DuPont, may be ineligible to hold office
From The Baseball Project
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Sharon Smith on Marxism and identity politics.
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Dog bites man.
Readers of liberal blogs were clustered at the far left, and readers of conservative blogs were bunched at the far right. There was little, if any, overlap between them on these issues. The two sides have less in common politically than, say, liberals who watch PBS and conservatives who watch Fox News.There is a third, unconsidered, possibility, which is that highly politically aware people are more likely to congregate toward opposite ends of the political spectrum, blogs or no blogs, on the basis of actually possessing coherent political beliefs as opposed to go-along-to-get-along salad bar moderation that defines the great mass of the less active. Regardless, the hand-wringing from Serious Thinkers over bloggy extremism strikes me as a bit rich; the blogosphere's ascension came about as a direct result of the undying veneration of Compromise Centrism by the mainstream press and pundits that shuts out and ridicules anyone on the left.
One caveat, however: We don't know if blogs polarize their readers, or if highly ideological readers gravitate to blogs that reflect their partisanship.
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Great Moments in Seriousness
