Twitter roundup

	Brendan Nyhan Oct 5, 2010 at 4:33pm From my Twitter feed (9/30-10/5)
	BrendanNyhan Oct 5, 2010 at 4:23pm Third party post updated with a response to @fivethirtyeight emphasizing theoretical reasons to doubt 3P viability: http://bit.ly/dBFRTV
	Thomas Friedman's third party nonsense - Brendan Nyhan The dream of the independent third party presidential candidate shall never die -- at least in the columns of elite pundits like Thomas Friedman. In his latest effort, Friedman predicts "a serio...
	BrendanNyhan Oct 5, 2010 at 3:58pm Inspired by Thomas Friedman, a compilation of third party hype since 2005 -- it's a long history of wrong: http://j.mp/a3lEhe
	Third party hype 2005- - Brendan Nyhan The blog of Brendan Nyhan, political scientist and media critic.
	BrendanNyhan Oct 5, 2010 at 12:55am Wow - new paper finds that 39% households were unemployed or underwater/in arrears on their house between 11/08 & 4/10 http://j.mp/a3lV79
	Effects of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession on American Households
	BrendanNyhan Oct 5, 2010 at 12:40am More Mondale nonsense about Obama not "connecting" because of teleprompters: http://j.mp/97s7mG Why he's wrong: http://j.mp/aFipuR
	Mondale to Obama: Ditch the 'idiot boards' - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com Former Vice President Walter Mondale suggested in an interview today President Obama stop relying on "idiot boards" -- teleprompters, that is -- to deliver his message to the American people. "...
	The zombie myth of presidents "not connecting" - Brendan Nyhan Former Vice President Walter Mondale is the latest public figure to fall victim to the impossible-to-kill myth that the predictable decline in President Obama's political standing is the result ...
	BrendanNyhan Oct 4, 2010 at 5:58pm Memeorandum collects this morning's crop of Tom Friedman is wrong about third parties blog posts: http://j.mp/avSFhs
	memeorandum: Tom Friedman Hates Democracy. (Jamelle Bouie/American Prospect) The latest political news and opinion from left to right and back. Blogs and mainstream news outlets features on a single page.
	BrendanNyhan Oct 4, 2010 at 4:59pm Another great piece from @SteveKornacki -- beware the narrative of a Democratic surge, which was also touted in '94 http://j.mp/bzKSgc
	A Democratic surge -- or a mirage? - War Room - Salon.com Why you should take new reports of Democratic momentum for the midterm elections with a grain of salt
	BrendanNyhan Oct 4, 2010 at 3:43pm Summary of book on partisan ambivalence with cool graph -- Dems high in ambivalence in '52 & '68, GOP in '96, '00, '04 http://j.mp/9vocR4
	The Monkey Cage: Ambivalent Partisans
	BrendanNyhan Oct 4, 2010 at 4:13pm One other relevant finding: Ambivalent partisans "hold more accurate perceptions of the political world" http://j.mp/9vocR4
	The Monkey Cage: Ambivalent Partisans
	BrendanNyhan Oct 4, 2010 at 11:34am LAT op-ed reminds us that presidents almost always lose seats Cong. and that loss will not be end of Obama's presidency http://j.mp/9gglwb
	Politics, Congress: For presidents, losing midterm vote is the norm - latimes.com
	BrendanNyhan Oct 2, 2010 at 6:53pm Really, WSJ -- "Healthamburglar"? http://j.mp/9LDSoy I like a good Hamburglar reference as much as the next guy, but that's a hacky mess
	Review & Outlook: Healthamburglar - WSJ.com The Wall Street Journal on what happened when McDonald's met ObamaCare.
	BrendanNyhan Oct 2, 2010 at 6:47pm "Static America: Myths about Political Change in the US" from Pew's Michael Robinson: http://j.mp/9xEfXE (via @doug_rivers)
	A Static America: A Contrarian View of Current U.S. Public Opinion Trends - Pew Research Center With predictions of a wave of Republican victories come the November elections, there has been talk of a sea change in American politics. While acknowledging that changes in political and econom...
	BrendanNyhan Oct 1, 2010 at 1:04pm Chait claims "[n]ot much correlation" between cons. self-ID and GOP vote, but I get r of approx. 0.5 -- pretty strong http://j.mp/9Oo9yL
	Who Cares How Many People Call Themselves Conservative? | The New Republic The New Republic covers politics, culture, and the arts with a focus on the White House, foreign policy, Congress, Capitol Hill, the 2010 midterm elections, literature, and more.
	BrendanNyhan Oct 1, 2010 at 12:53pm MSNBC bringing on Levi Johnston to mock him and Palin = Fox bringing on obscure black nationalists to discredit liberals http://j.mp/aT6PEO
	Print view: Rehema Ellis lied through her teeth about our glorious history
	BrendanNyhan Oct 1, 2010 at 2:30am People you should not trust -- anyone who takes Gallup's Obama v. Hillary poll seriously http://j.mp/a1xR1N
	Weigel : Gallup's Obama-Hillary 2012 Primary Poll; Or, How to Invent News The new Gallup poll on a potential 2012 Democratic presidential primary comes with a warning: As is the case for the 2012 Republican nomination , voter sentiments at this stage of the 2012 elect...
	BrendanNyhan Oct 1, 2010 at 2:08am Important legislation introduced to allow bulk access to THOMAS data on Congress http://j.mp/98bcC1 This is public data -- set it free!
	Rep. Foster Introduces Bill To Improve THOMAS — Sunlight Foundation Blog Yesterday, Rep. Bill Foster introduced a bill that would improve public access to legislative information. Specifically, H.R. 6289 calls for:

Comments

[Rob]

The Hurd and Rohwedder study, which according to its authors found "that the effects of the recession are widespread," is interesting in three respects. First, though it purports to be a study of the certain economic facts, the basis for those facts is self-reporting, so in truth it is reporting only the perception of the respondents, not whether those perceptions are accurate. Second, though it purports to find that these "facts" are the result of the recession, it merely assumes causality. Third, because no pre-recession benchmarks are presented, even whether there is a change from pre-recession levels to recession levels is unproved.

Knowledge of what the public's perceptions were of their economic circumstances during the three periods studied may well be useful. However, to magify the significance of that very limited finding to purport to find consequences of the recession is to engage in unscientific speculation. That the authors are probably correct in that speculation doesn't modify the conclusion that they have mischaracterized what it is their research found and substituted punditry for rigor. In an age of careerism and egotism, it's not surprising that these social scientists would fall prey to the temptation to puff up their modest research; in doing so, they're simply following the example of some physical scientists. (Climatologists, I'm talkin' 'bout you!) But that doesn't make it any less regrettable.

[MartyB]

Brendan -

I don't ses a link to the "obscure black nationalists" you refer in the Levi Johnston tweet. to what exactly are you referring?

[bnyhan]

Both are obscure figures from the other side of the political spectrum who are brought on to cable news shows to be ridiculed.

[MartyB]

I guess I missed the "obscure black nationalists" that were ridiculed on cable TV... a link to this event would have been helpful.

[bnyhan]

Here's an excerpt from a Dave Weigel post on Andrew Sullivan's blog:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/07/megyn-kellys-minstrel-show.html

I don't really get a chance to watch TV in Unalaska, and the one thing I miss is Megyn Kelly of Fox News. The last week or so of her work -- her one woman crusade against the New Black Panther Party -- has been truly riveting television. Kelly widens her eyes in a way that bespeaks both horror and anger at the subject she's reporting on. "Shocking new video," she'll say, introducing a clip of the Panthers acting like idiots and yelling about "crackers" at a Philadelphia street festival. "We have a DOJ whistleblower alleging there is a discriminatory policy at the DOJ voting rights section," she'll say, "and no one seems to give a darn." It's the "darn" that ties this together -- she's not just a journalist, she's a concerned citizen who has to bring you this story before it's. Too. Late.

The people who grab these videos for the web use the same cliches to title them. "Megyn Kelly DESTROYS Kirsten Powers on New Black Panther Case" says one of them; "Megyn Kelly schools lib pundit over New Black Panthers Party." But why is she doing so many stories on the Panthers? It's because Fox News uses the Panthers the way that Phil Donohue used to use the KKK or G.G. Allin. They're good on TV. The difference between the Panthers and other freakish groups that look good on the air, of course, is that that they threaten white people.

How often does Fox bring on the Panthers, or talk about them? A Lexis-Nexis search finds 68 mentions of "Malik Zulu Shabazz," a leader of the NBPP. The majority are appearances on Fox News, where Shabazz is repeatedly brought on to act as a foolish, anti-Semitic punching bag.

[MartyB]

So a member of a group that has been accused of being involved in voter intimidation is just an "obscure fringe figure to ridicule" - not dis-similiar to a young man whose only fame is siring a republican policitian's grandchild?

That a rather unusual way to look at it...