Swift-boating the Presidency

So, John McCain may have had a romantic liaison with a female lobbyist and done favours for her corporate clients.

Barack Obama may have had improper dealings with Chicago-based 'dodgy fella', Tony Rezko. Now, he might be conniving with terrorists. For more on The Weathermen, I can recommend the documentary, The Weather Underground.

Of course, Hillary already has had Monicagate, Watergate, VinceFostergate, Furnituregate, MarcRichgate, RandombombingofSudangate and many others. GOP oppo researchers boast at the material they still have.

Most of us liberals are quite happy that the Democrats and Republicans look set to choose their best respective nominees. However, there is a very high chance that this could go from the most promising election in my memory, to something very, very ugly.

Practical Jokes are Funny

It's baseball's Spring Training, but there is sadness in the camp of the Philadelphia Phillies, as Kyle Kendrick is traded to Japan...

Covering the Presidential Election

Memory Hole has an interesting, and quite important, post on the quality of the coverage of the U.S. presidential election. As someone who consumes a lot of information about the race and the candidates, there have been many, many more horse race columns, then ideological, policy or governing philsophy of the candidates. The two major issues on the Democratic side have been around the speed of paying down the deficit, and the use of mandates for healthcare reform. Ezra Klein, of American Prospect, and Johnathan Chait, of The New Republic, have been by far the best on healthcare issues. Mark Schmidt, of the former publication, has writen the best column on governing approach and the 'Theory of Change' primary.

Finally, the most interesting ideological issue has been the adoption of the, badly named, libertarian paternalism approach to public policy, greatly influenced by the University of Chicago's Cass Sunstein. Libertarian Paternalism will be the subject of an upcoming post when I am not at the office pretending to be working and not blogging! But, in the meantime, Memory Hole is right that the coverage of issues in general has been very, very poor. But we should not be shy about directing people to some of the better articles this primary season.

Weapons of Choice

This is pretty sweet- two Bristol-area graffiti artists do a 'live set'. Looks it would have been amazing to see in person. The blog itself is also worth a longer look. Not sure who it is by, but it seems to be an interesting look at the current debate on policy and thoughts around graffiti in the Bristol area.

Paddick on the Streets of London....

Ah, the Smiths! Anyway, work has been heavy and blogging has been light. I can only promise more when my schedule opens up a bit. In the meantime, here is an interesting profile of Lib Dem mayoral hopeful, Brian Paddick. Clowns to the left of him, jokers to the right...

A Link

Here is a nice post from Simon Goldie about the absurd distinctions between social and economic liberalism.

Nick Clegg on social mobility and education

Patriots Lose in Superbowl

Two words: sports hurt.

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video