Twitter roundup

	Brendan Nyhan Sep 30, 2010 at 3:28pm From my Twitter feed (9/21-9/23)
	BrendanNyhan Sep 23, 2010 at 4:49am Unusual to see people called out by name: "Conservative pundits like Glenn Beck have questioned Mr. Obama’s Christianity" http://j.mp/9TnyCR
	BrendanNyhan Sep 23, 2010 at 4:44am NYT claims Summers said "women might lack an intrinsic aptitude for math & science" http://j.mp/8YiBBa Misleading - see http://j.mp/dDjeSz
	BrendanNyhan Sep 22, 2010 at 6:49pm Palin's #s among those undecided on Cong. vote: 17% favorable, 65% (!) unfavorable http://j.mp/c1gRbZ See http://j.mp/d6do9Q for more
	Public Policy Polling: Looking at the Undecideds Nationally
	Is Sarah Palin like Hillary Clinton or Dan Quayle? - Brendan Nyhan Is Sarah Palin the frontrunner for the 2012 GOP nomination? That's the claim that's been made by some prominent commentators (here, here, and here), but it's wildly premature. There's a reason t...
	BrendanNyhan Sep 22, 2010 at 6:46pm Extremely simplistic post on the midterms by Paul Krugman: "If [Democrats] lose, the fault lies ... in themselves" http://j.mp/aQAm4C
	Not Over - NYTimes.com Democrats aren't doomed, unless they choose to be.
	BrendanNyhan Sep 22, 2010 at 6:22pm Legislators with higher net worths more likely to support estate tax cuts controlling for party, tax positions, district http://j.mp/dsriYH
	The Monkey Cage: Congressional Wealth and Opposition to the Estate Tax
	BrendanNyhan Sep 22, 2010 at 12:38pm RT @ezraklein No NEC director's communication skills will make the slightest different at the polls. // Or Treasury Sec. or Press Sec., etc.
	BrendanNyhan Sep 22, 2010 at 7:21am RT @JRandomF Stevie Wonder and Books for the Blind : The New Yorker: http://nyr.kr/cLaAPP
	The Book Bench: Stevie Wonder and Books for the Blind : The New YorkerThe Book Bench Online version of the weekly magazine, with current articles, cartoons, blogs, audio, video, slide shows, an archive of articles and abstracts back to 1925
	BrendanNyhan Sep 22, 2010 at 3:38am Google-produced 2010 election maps using ratings from 4 forecasters (Cook, Rothenberg, CQ-Roll Call, RealClearPolitics) http://j.mp/bhWsA6
	2010 U.S. Election Ratings - Google
	BrendanNyhan Sep 21, 2010 at 5:50pm Under-appreciated point by @kdrum -- Dems can't play to the base like GOP b/c so many fewer liberals than conservatives http://j.mp/akMzRS
	Obama and the Left | Mother Jones
	BrendanNyhan Sep 21, 2010 at 10:38am As @jbplainblog notes, need to be careful discussing "effects" of Tea Party--just one possible form of conserv. activism http://j.mp/cbYM2J
	A plain blog about politics: A Party Networks Perspective on Tea Parties and Republicans

Comments

[David in Cal]

Why do conservatives never win, given that there are many more conservative voters than moderates? Here's what I mean. Liberals favor larger goverment and freer cultural mores; Conservatives want smaller government and more rigid social norms. Over at least the past 80 years, government and social freedom have moved in one direction only. Government at all levels continues to expand and social norms continue to become freer.

Reversal seems almost inconceivable. Can anyone seriously imagine gay sex becoming illegal? Will LBJ's Great Society programs be eliminated? There are virtually no candidates favoring such actions.

As is widely pointed out in the conservative media, while conservatives have a majority of the population, liberals dominate the elite, particularly journalists and educators. Also, people who believe in government tend to go into government. The longer they stay there, the more they see the world through a government lens. Even George Bush expanded government through Medicare prescription drug coverage and No Child Left Behind. So, Kevin Drum need not worry. Liberals will continue to win.

BTW Kevin Drum made a mathematical error: If roughly 40% of voters are conservative and 40% are moderate, a conservative candidate would need all the conservative votes and 10 percentage points of the moderates, which is 1/4 of moderates, not 10%. Thus a conservative candidate would need a significant amount of moderate support.

[David in Cal]

Here's a nice quote showing how the liberal media foster expansion of government, even though there are more conservatives in total:

[The Tea Party movement] would seem to be the perfect news peg for ongoing media coverage of our government’s fiscal irresponsibility. Of course, it didn’t work out quite that way, did it? Instead, the establishment media ignored, then attacked the Tea Party movement — first as astroturf, then as racist, as Birthers, as hypocritical (for not having formed when the problem was less dire, and for gullibly expecting the government to make good on current entitlement promises or reform them before adding new ones), etc. The establishment media’s coverage of the Tea Party often seems devoted to discussing anything other than the issues at the heart of the movement.

Thus, the establishment media reveals itself, not as the people’s watchdog against irresponsible government, but as the irresponsible government’s guard dog against the people.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/22/big-medias-biggest-failure/

[GC]

There's so much misinformation and stereotypes in the last two posts by David, one would have a hard time knowing where to start. I know few people who are liberal who would call themselves liberal; I know many, many conservatives who have a government job and vote against it (and union members as well); liberals don't favor big government, they often don't fear it or aren't hypocritical about it; the Tea Party's problem isn't the media, it's that they ARE the people: amateurish, ignorant, power hungry and unorganized.

Any organization depending on protest will get unrelated protest: PETA at an Earth Day event, etc. All of the media's criticism of the Tea Party listed above are valid, but they are infrequently addressed by the various Tea Parties, only denied. The Tea Party IS irresponsible government, look at any number of candidates or Tea Party orgs (Christine O'Donnell, Our Country Deserves Better PAC scandal) who are ALREADY not held accountable for their financial irregularities.

[David in Cal]

Unlike the Tea Party, the Dems are amateurish, ignorant, power hungry and all-too-well organized. They're in the process of destroying our monetary system by passing bills with no attention to cost. It takes an ignorant amateur to imagine that the country can run multi-trillion deficits forever with no consequence. Or that the government can take over more and more of the economy without harming private enterprise, which is source of all wealth.

Yes, the Tea Parties would like to see their sort of financially responsible, small governent types in power. Unlike the Dems, the libertarial types would use their power to leave you alone. That sounds good to me.