Cued by Andrew Sullivan, I briefly commented on this subject in the parenthetical conclusion to this post — but the issues raised by Sullivan and his colleague, Megan McArdle, deserve more than that; hence, the following. To recap: Yesterday, Megan went semi-nuclear on some of her readers who suggested the primary “burden of proof” should be placed on the stimulus opponents rather than its proponents. Au contraire, Megan responded: … it seems to me that the burden of proof ought naturally...

I watched the Super Bowl Sunday evening with two of my best and most conservative friends. Four-plus years ago, I would have agreed with 90 percent or more of what they said. Now, our consensus-ratio is closer to 50 percent, although Sunday night, that 50 percent became 51 percent as we voiced our collective outrage at Wall Street’s use of taxpayer bailout funds to pay its executives $18.4 billion in bonuses. I doubt anyone in the room except me voted for Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill...

“America is not turning Democratic because Americans have suddenly become liberals. America is no more liberal than it is conservative. Most Americans are not ideological at all — and they gravitate to the less ideological party, to the party that seems businesslike, sensible, and responsible. (Or anyway: less profligate, less heedless, and less irresponsible.) For most of the past third of the century, that party was the GOP. No longer. Until we seem that way again, we will sojourn in...

When I first read about the comment at Politico, it didn’t sound like Obama; it sounded more like “I’m the Decider” … President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning — but he also left no doubt about who’s in charge of these negotiations. “I won,” Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation. My reaction was very similar to...

Two days ago, I declined to accept the crass, cynical theatrics of Mr. Limbaugh when he wished for President Obama’s failure. Today, I generally applaud what seems to be a more sincere form of dissent from Christine Flowers, a lawyer published on the opinion pages of the Philadelphia Daily News. I favor Ms. Flowers’ approach because she consistently tries to focus her dissent on policy rather than person. In other words, she does not wish a general, all-encompassing, Limbaughian failure...

If you think you are, try this quiz. I scored 25 out of 30 or 83%. Acceptable, I guess, although I thought I would have done better. At least I beat Marc Moore — by an entire two questions. If you do try your hand at this 30-question test, feel free to share your results in the comments section of this post. Hopefully, you’ll fare better than Marc and I did.

Get ready for the insulting joke parade. This is apparently not a hoax.

Check it out: An incredible photograph from yesterday’s inauguration. Explanation here.

Catching up on what has transpired so far: Mr. Limbaugh expressed a wish that President Obama fail. Mr. Shakir said that Mr. Limbaugh is a hypocrite. Mr. van der Galien rebuked Mr. Shakir and defended Mr. Limbaugh on the grounds that it is good to speak from an ideologically pure basis, even if such speech is not politically correct. In turn, I was going to respond to this back-and-forth, but then one of PoliGazette’s assistant editors, who goes only by Claudia, said what I would have said,...

President Obama said: “Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.” Actually, I think it’s 43, since Grover Cleveland’s non-consecutive terms resulted in him being counted as Presidents 22 and 24. Other than that: An excellent speech, as always. I further suspect the error in presidential counting will be forgiven and these will be the words most cited and studied generations from now.

David Brooks expresses reserved hope that Obama’s presidency could be the end of the “Great Disruption,” echoing themes penned by Andrew Sullivan more than a year ago. The following contrast in Brooks’ column rings particularly true. He notes first that, in the late 1960s and beyond, “Republicans tended to win elections because liberals were associated with disorder and conservatives with attempts to restore it.” Later, channeling Time‘s Peter Beinart,...

We, the fiscally concerned, will be waiting and watching.

As reported yesterday, the House passed a bill expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), similar to the bills that President Bush rejected last year (twice, as I recall). Though I have not relinquished my fiscally conservative tendencies, I believe this latest House vote on SCHIP was the right thing to do. In fact, of all the types of programs funded by the feds in this country, this one is among my favorites — in part because of its primary beneficiaries; in part...

I’ve never been a fan of the self-righteous Rick Santorum. I celebrated his departure from the Senate two years ago. And today, he does absolutely nothing to convince me to modify my decidedly non-moderate dislike for him. Why the editors of the Philadelphia Inquirer agreed to give Santorum a bully pulpit is a mystery, but they did. And the ex-senator uses that forum to predict that John McCain will finally reveal himself to be the Democrat-in-sheep’s-clothing that Republicans like...

Between Jan. 1 and yesterday, I had published four posts. That’s clearly not my most impressive performance. Worse: I’m no longer convinced the issue is “writer’s block.” Instead, I think this sustained lack of material is the result of nothing more profound than having nothing productive to add to the stream of each day’s news reports. For any writer, especially a blogger, that is a thoroughly non-hepful state of mind. By nature, blogging requires a certain...

Declare a mistrial! My brain can’t decide if I’m a libertarian or progressive or some bizarre, twisted blend of the two. I passionately agree that the most reliable, proven path to economically benefitting the most people is by constructing a society that consistently encourages “the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect.” That belief leads me to question the skewed schedule of effective tax rates in America — where the...

If Obama’s transition team gets its way, Feb. 17 may no longer be a day-of-worry for those who still get their TV via antenna. Obama Transition Team Co-Chair John Podesta’s letter to the relevant committee chairs and ranking members (Sens. Rockefeller and Hutchison, Reps. Waxman and Barton) — requesting a delay in the scheduled transition from analog to digital broadcasting — strikes me as the ultimate CYA move. Here’s why: I work for a company that has a stake in the...

Chris Cillizza has the scoop. As a lifetime Missouri resident, I’m sure this will be very big news at home. Love him or not, Bond’s one of the Show-Me State’s epic political figures and the first Missouri governor I remember as a child. (He was first elected to that position in 1972, when I was seven.) The Dems will be salivating for the chance to pick up this seat in 2010, which Cillizza’s post makes clear. In addition, the party will have some decent candidates (from...

What do you get when you cross a brief, vegetative vacation with an extremely fast-start to the new year? For me, those circumstances recently combined to create a very bad case of “writer’s block.” Nor was it a single-issue case of writer’s block like Andrew Sullivan experienced after his respite. Mine was a pervasive block; it was the Hoover Dam of writer’s blocks. Thankfully, that block shattered this morning after I read Stephen Chapman’s column, “The...

Per Ben Smith: … a wired Chicago source emails that ‘senior administration officials have been coming in to present info in droves since the arrest on 12/9. That’s the primary reason the indictment has been delayed.’ Is anyone naïve enough to think those “droves” of “info” are good news for the Illinois Govenor?

So suggests the Sun Times ed board. H/t Ben Smith.

I wish I had six years to finish work reports. Of course, our reports aren’t 400 pages long. Then again, I have a team of three, and I suspect NASA has a few more. Is this seriously the best the agency can do?

Over the weekend, Becker and Posner took their respective shots at the UAW … and unions, in general. I believe great value can be offered by unions of freelancers — e.g., common artisans whose pay is primarily derived from diverse but finite projects rather than from single-entity employers — but I tend to share Posner’s and Becker’s doubts about the role and value of other unions; namely, those that organize workers at companies that would probably (or already do) offer...

And so we learn that Sen. Mitch McConnell, leader of a declining Republican caucus, wants “a weeklong cooling off period between when the [expected economic stimulus] bill is drafted and when it is voted on, allowing time to dissect it for signs of ‘fraud and waste.’” Good for McConnell. Despite at least one, unkind protest over the Senator’s sudden, rediscovered love for fiscal sanity, I applaud his call for a time out. No matter how much a government jolt to this...

Per my upbringing, I’m instinctively pro-Israel. I’m also terribly un-educated on the names, faces, arguments, and counter-arguments surrounding the current conflict and the history leading up to it. I thus took a few minutes this morning to read several related items: one from New York, one from London, and one from Jerusalem. If you’re similarly seeking perspective, I hope these links are helpful.