Twitter roundup

From my Twitter feed (8/9-8/15) Brendan Nyhan Aug 15, 2011 at 1:52 PM
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	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Reminder for Perry: In a democracy, the priority is that the military respects civilian leadership, not the converse http://j.mp/pakl5V
	Perry running to restore military 'respect' for presidency - Ben Smith Rick Perry strayed from a tribute to military service to tell an audience in Waterloo, Iowa that he's running in part to restore the respect of the military to its civilian leaders.
	Aug 15, 2011 at 1:45 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Contra Rick Perry, Ronald Reagan touted low-income voters not paying federal income taxes as an achievement http://j.mp/qW41Uf
	Bessette Pitney Text: Perry on Taxes His political opponents will probably raise a couple of questions. Does Governor Perry think that Reagan was wrong? Does he propose to raise taxes on the poor and middle class?
	Aug 15, 2011 at 1:40 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Bad fact-check alert: AP objects to Bachmann's opinion that HCR is "unconstitutional" http://j.mp/pF7PGj (6th item)
	Best of the Web Today: The Great Deflation (Best of the tube this weekend: Watch us on a Lou Dobbs special, "Global Market Chaos," Sunday 8-9 p.m. ET on Fox Business. We'll be on the political panel toward the end of the program.) You've...
	Aug 15, 2011 at 12:35 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Classic faux psychoanalysis from R. Cohen - problem isn't the economy; it's Obama's personality! http://t.co/dwAWzbt (via @dankennedy_nu)
	Mr. Cool turns cold In her autobiography, Helen Gahagan Douglas recalled telling President Franklin D. Roosevelt about her visits to the camps of migrant workers. She was especially poignant about the children and ...
	Aug 15, 2011 at 12:20 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Yes. RT @mattklewis: I wonder if we will look back at yesterday as the best day of Michele Bachmann's campaign.
	Aug 15, 2011 at 1:52 AM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan MT @paulwaldman1: My piece in WaPo on how "gaffes" tell us more about what reporters think than about who candidates are: wapo.st/oUL08h
	Aug 14, 2011 at 11:35 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan I was one of those who thought T-Paw would be the anti-Romney. Great reminder that u have to be able to get people excited. #clark #thompson
	Aug 14, 2011 at 8:24 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan MT @j_a_tucker: I'm agreeing, #clark and #thompson seemed exciting when they declared. Let's see where Perry is in two weeks #caution
	Aug 14, 2011 at 9:36 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @kkondik: Second point: Let's not overrate Perry like we did T-Paw. Pretty sure he's a better candidate, but he hasn't been vetted yet
	Aug 14, 2011 at 9:38 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Joe Nocera needs to think harder http://t.co/7HuPFfZ MT @kwcollins if moderates stop donating, all $ will come from non-moderates
	Boycott Campaign Donations! - NYTimes.com Howard Schultz of Starbucks has come up with a Grand Idea to get a Grand Bargain out of Washington. He envisions a total strike on political contributions.
	Aug 14, 2011 at 8:19 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan More on the weak arguments of Joe Nocera RT @smotus: Boycotting campaign donations? Really? http://t.co/tMeWMTM
	Enik Rising: Can we boycott bipartisanship instead? In the NY Times , Joe Nocera advocates boycotting donations to political campaigns as a way to get politicians to "begin acting responsibly." Somehow, he considers this idea "hardheaded and prac...
	Aug 14, 2011 at 11:33 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @PollsAndVotes: Iowa Straw Poll Results vs Iowa statewide poll. Bachmann/Paul Overdrive. http://t.co/eAs3sga
	Iowa Straw Poll Results, 2011 « Polls And Votes And….. the votes are in. Michele Bachmann wins the Ames Straw Poll with 28.6% of the votes, closely followed by Ron Paul with 27.6%. Tim Pawlenty finished a distant third at 13.6%. Mitt Romney w...
	Aug 14, 2011 at 12:18 AM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @PollsAndVotes: Neither affects nomination: http://t.co/m4zFKKk RT @DLeonhardt: Ames is good predictor: Does that mean Ames is imp? Or GOP IA caucus isn't?
	Why Ames (apparently) doesn’t matter « Polls And Votes After yesterday's excitement over the Ames straw poll let's take a look at the history and consequences. With Tim Pawlenty's withdrawal today, it seems Ames does indeed matter, at least for nega...
	Aug 14, 2011 at 8:06 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Most inane Dowd ever? "disturbing that Mitt & Willard morph into Millard, name of 1 of Am's most mediocre presidents" http://j.mp/n8vpgb
	Power to the Corporation! - NYTimes.com In the Iowa heat, Mitt breaks a sweat. It’s almost human.
	Aug 14, 2011 at 12:16 AM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Bachmann straw poll win likely to flush out more GOP elites who oppose her candidacy. Closest comparison has to be Robertson in 1987, right?
	Aug 14, 2011 at 12:02 AM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Matt Bai’s wrongness, a continuing series -- new entries from @mattyglesias http://j.mp/rrbtBf and @jbplainblog http://j.mp/pe3dz1
	Matt Bai’s Mystical Powers Average political reporters observe what politicians say and write it down. Better ones ask discerning questions and write the answer down. But Matt Bai has political super-powers and just knows...
	A plain blog about politics: Oy, Bai Isaac Chotiner goes after the " pathological need to appear evenhanded " that Matt Bai shows in one of his typically awful pieces of "analysis" today. And Chotiner is correct: Bai's claim that D...
	Aug 13, 2011 at 2:35 AM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Standing by my no-comment policy on debates: http://t.co/qveEHCP Way too much coverage relative to their importance.
	Why I have no comment on the debate - Brendan Nyhan A reader asked recently why I haven't blogged about the presidential debates. One reason is that they don't matter very much at this point, so I have a hard time forcing myself to sit through th...
	Aug 12, 2011 at 11:23 AM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @christiangrose: Correlation between low support for Obama and counties with high levels of "unhyphenated" whites, by Arbour &Teigen http://t.co/dOd85HQ
	Barack Obama's “American” Problem: Unhyphenated Americans in the 2008 Elections* - Arbour - 2011 - Social Science Quarterly - Wiley Online Library Objectives. The largest increase of any ancestry group between the 1990 and 2000 Census in the United States were "unhyphenated Americans," those whites who claimed an "American" or no ancestry....
	Aug 12, 2011 at 2:55 AM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @nickconfessore: Actual PBS statement on Bert and Ernie: "They remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation." http://on.fb.me/oHUNzr h/t @TUCapCon
	Sesame Workshop Statement on Bert and Ernie Petitions | Facebook Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as mal...
	Aug 11, 2011 at 6:20 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @AdamSerwer: In which @normative convinces me Bert and Ernie should come out http://t.co/uZQBacg
	Why We Need (Openly) Gay Muppets The makers of Sesame Street released the following message today, in response to a Facebook petition that had called for Bert and Ernie to finally come out and get married: Bert and Ernie are be...
	Aug 12, 2011 at 11:47 AM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan MT @SteveKornacki Could GOP nom be hurt by party brand? http://t.co/cGAup6r // I have same q, but no damage in '10 http://t.co/SEXSZNy
	2012 Elections: Could the Tea Party actually be Obama's salvation in 2012? Barack Obama's approval rating is holding steady below 50 percent -- sometimes well below 50 percent -- and there's reason to doubt that the country's economic conditions will improve substantia...
	Republicans overcome image gap - Brendan Nyhan Last year, I noted that the GOP brand was in terrible shape and asked whether this would damage the party in the coming midterms. In recent months, however, the gap has narrowed, suggesting that...
	Aug 11, 2011 at 1:50 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @jonathanchait: The triumph of magical thinking on the economy and the deficit http://t.co/aT2NIYo
	The Two Crises And The Triumph Of Magical Thinking | The New Republic This morning, listening to Diane Rehm, I heard the host ask her guest what President Obama should do to fix the ailing economy. Her guest expert tried to answer, but did not point out that any p...
	Aug 10, 2011 at 4:47 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Borderline? RT @jbouie: http://t.co/BNMxUDi This Tom Friedman op-ed is borderline unreadable.
	Aug 10, 2011 at 4:10 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @daveweigel: Taking submissions for the first Flat World Prize for American Fiction, in honor of Friedman. http://slate.me/qXohND
	The First Annual Flat World Prize for American Fiction: Nominees Roll In I put out the call, and people are starting to answer. Skye Winspur sent me the first entry in my call for Tom Friedman-esque Kumbaya Fiction. I'll reprint his entry in full. Keep sending, and I...
	Aug 10, 2011 at 7:19 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @jbouie: Claire McCaskill comes out against extending unemployment benefits, though I doubt liberals will say anything about it: http://cl.ly/9BwZ
	Senator McCaskill opposes further extending unemployment benefits Posted on August 9, 2011 at 5:51 PM Updated Wednesday, Aug 10 at 3:04 PM (KMOV) - President Barack Obama is for extending unemployment, but it may run out if Congress does not act soon to contin...
	Aug 10, 2011 at 3:01 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @jbouie: Because, I mean, if Obama had told a better story, then throughout he power of magic, McCaskill wouldn't have done this at all!
	Aug 10, 2011 at 3:01 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Jeb Bush's "grand strategy" of "growth" http://j.mp/qzv6ei reminiscent of McCain's "stop the bullshit" strategy for Iraq http://j.mp/pEFSbZ
	Jeb Bush's Economic Grand Strategery | The New Republic Like most people, I've always believed that Jeb Bush is the smart Bush brother. And yet his Wall Street Journal op-ed today shakes that assumption to its core. The entire thing has to be read in...
	John McCain's solution to the crisis in Iraq - Brendan Nyhan " Bold! Contrarian! from Political Animal BOLD! CONTRARIAN!....Brendan Nyhan has the latest from the Straight Talk Express.... [Read More] " McCain's Solution from It Shines For All The New York...
	Aug 10, 2011 at 2:07 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan A must-read from two co-authors MT @smotus: 3rd-party presidential candidates don't win -- @student and I in the LAT: http://t.co/4vHFCcB
	Don't look to a third-party candidate A supporter of Republican Jon Huntsman holds an American Flag as Huntsman announces his bid for the presidency at Liberty State Park June 21 in Jersey City. The U.S. political system is set up i...
	Aug 10, 2011 at 12:47 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan UWM's Thomas Holbrook: Too Early for 2012 Predictions http://j.mp/oBxXNf
	Too Early for 2012 Predictions A full fifteen months out from the 2012 election, we are starting to see a bit of hand-wringing among Democrats and signs of optimism among Republicans, largely on the basis of President Obama's...
	Aug 9, 2011 at 5:47 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan NYT: Sway of Social Networks on Behavior May Be Overestimated http://j.mp/olIczE Cites my article with @Student: http://j.mp/mROOg9 (PDF)
	Sway of Social Networks on Behavior May Be Overestimated - NYTimes.com Researchers who published studies suggesting that conditions and behaviors like obesity, happiness, smoking and loneliness could be contagious are under serious critical fire.
	http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyha n/unfriending.pdf
	Aug 9, 2011 at 5:35 PM
	BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan See also previous coverage of the debate in Slate http://j.mp/rieZgb and the Boston Globe http://j.mp/riLnEu
	Social contagions debunked: Reports of infectious obesity and divorce were grossly overstated. Sign up for Slate's daily newsletter. Have you heard that divorce is contagious? A lot of people have. Last summer a study claiming to show that break-ups can propagate from friend to friend to ...
	Critics challenge contagious traits study In a handful of recent papers, outside scientists critiqued certain methods Christakis and Fowler used to reach their striking conclusions. The critics point out specific ways in which the resea...
	Aug 9, 2011 at 5:37 PM
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Comments

[Rob]

Some insight into Administration priorities is provided by none other than the New York Times:

Administration officials, frustrated by the intransigence of House Republicans, have increasingly concluded that the best thing Mr. Obama can do for the economy may be winning a second term, with a mandate to advance his ideas on deficit reduction, entitlement changes, housing policy and other issues.

The country is very blessed. We have a President who is so concerned about unemployment that he's willing to do whatever it takes to save one person's job--his own.

[David in Cal]

Brendan's first item seems illogical. The first sentence of the cite says:

"[Perry is] running in part to restore the respect of the military to its civilian leaders.

Brendan thereupon criticizes Perry because:

"the priority is that the military respects civilian leadership, not the converse."

Perry is advocating exactly what Brendan says he wants -- military respect of civilian leadership ---- so why is Brendan complaining?

I think Brendan's and Ben Smith's convoluted reasoning goes like this: By calling for the military to respect the Presidency, Perry is implying that they don't respect the current President. Smith claims that Perry is thus validating military doubts about civilian leadership. That's illogical. Pointing out a problem doesn't imply approval, especially when the rest of the comment explicitly expresses disapproval. Smith even acknowledges that Perry's observation is correct, referring to a "discontent with Obama that's common among soldiers"

Calling Perry's comment a validation of something he deplores is as illogical as saying that deploring racism validates racism or deploring low economic growth validates low economic growth.

[David in Cal]

It's easy to criticize a column if one is allowed to misrepresent what it says. The central point Bush and Warsh's WSJ article is that the federal government ought to have a unified economic approach, rather than hodge-podge of separate programs. They mention some examples of the ad hoc approach: checks in the mail to spur spending, Cash for clunkers to move auto inventories, fast trains and faster Internet, mortgage modification programs and fleeting tax credits. Chait snarks about various points, but he doesn't really argue that an ad hoc economic approach is a good idea.

[David in Cal]

Chait says,

On the long-run deficit, President Obama favors a fiscal adjustment based on a mix of spending cuts and higher revenue, ideally through a tax reform that produces lower rates. Republicans believe that a fiscal adjustment is only desirable if it consists entirely of spending cuts.

I know that this is the way the popular media are presenting the situation, but it's not quite accurate. In fact, neither Obaman nor the Repulicans are making proposals that would fix the long-run deficit. A more accurate re-statement might be:

President Obama and Republicans agree that fixing the long-term deficit is out of the question. Obama favors a fiscal adjustment based on a mix of spending cuts and higher revenue, ideally through a tax reform that produces lower rates. Republicans believe that a fiscal adjustment is only desirable if it consists entirely of spending cuts. However, both sides agree that any spending cuts or revenue increases must be insignificant in relation to the actual size of the deficit.

[Rob]

A walk down memory lane with Jonathan Chait.

[David in Cal]

Brendan predicts: Bachmann straw poll win likely to flush out more GOP elites who oppose her candidacy. Sure enough, here's James Taranto with the ultimate insult:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576510271119903298.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

[Rob]

Ezra Klein meets Garrison Keilor:

That said, it’s hard to see how Perry could scale up these successes nationwide. It’s one thing for a single state’s population to grow at a faster-than-average rate by siphoning people from elsewhere, but how do you do that for the United States as a whole?

Klein is right. If Perry can't make every state above average, what good is he?

[David in Cal]

Re: Bert and Ernie. The Broadway show Avenue Q is more or less an adult spin-off of the Sesame Street muppets. In that show, two best friend male muppets are clearly based on Bert and Ernie. Late in the show, one of them discovers that he's gay. The show explores his and his friend's reaction.

[Metrichead]

Bert and Ernie gay? Really?

A modest compromise: How about instead of petitioning for Bert and Ernie to get married, why not have the creators at Sesame Street introduce two new puppets of the same gender living together in a relationship?

Can we then get on with life?