Brendan Nyhan

Unity '08 tanking

David Broder's latest column on the utopian third party group Unity '08 contains this damaging admission: I contacted [Unity co-founder Douglas] Bailey recently to ask what had happened to this bold gamble, and he was the source of that...

Jim Cooper wrongly blames Gingrich for polarization

Joe Nocera's New York Times column today features Rep. Jim Cooper, a moderate Tennessee Democrat, lamenting the state of Congress. Unfortunately, Cooper almost completely misunderstands cause and effect in his diagnosis of legislative po...

Hotsoup tanking

Via Atrios, Hotsoup co-founder and former hotshot Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier has fled back to the welcoming embrace of the AP. Why? Because the concept for the site -- "the first online community that joins Opinion Drivers...

Frank Rich: Hack

As TNR's Jon Chait points out, Frank Rich's column about GOP infighting in New York's 23rd Congressional district is full of nasty rhetoric comparing the GOP to murderous regimes, cults, etc.: [T]he real action migrated to New York’s ...

Twitter roundup

Brendan NyhanSep 30, 2010 at 3:28pmFrom my Twitter feed (9/17-9/20)BrendanNyhanSep 17, 2010 at 6:31amBarry Pump has more on GOP unfavs -- we're in uncharted territory (much worse #s than Dems, contradicts generic ballot) http://j.mp/9Qks...

What is Pete Stark talking about?

I think it's a scandal that we don't have universal health insurance in this country, but Congressman Pete Stark has gone off the deep end: We're the only country in the world -- not the only civilized country, not the only industrializ...

How soft is Giuliani's GOP support?

Even as "Team Rudy" touts his national poll numbers, Pollster.com's Mark Blumenthal notes that Republicans know nothing about him, quoting USA Today: Barely one in five Republicans knew that he supports abortion rights and civil unions ...

A rule of thumb

Political scientist/blogger Dan Drezner has posted a link to his book manuscript, which argues that the great powers retain a great deal of regulatory power despite the much-hyped trend toward globalization. I'm no expert on the subject...

Chait and Weisberg on the new conservatism

Jon Chait and Jacob Weisberg have a nice pair of articles on the hollowness of the so-called conservatism practiced under President Bush and the current Republican leadership in Congress. Here's Chait: The failure of intellectuals on t...