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Megan McArdle

Megan McArdle - Megan McArdle is a senior editor for The Atlantic who writes about business and economics. She has worked at three start-ups, a consulting firm, an investment bank, a disaster recovery firm at Ground Zero, and The Economist. More

Megan was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and yes, she does enjoy her lattes, as well as the occasional extra-dry skim-milk cappuccino. Her checkered work history includes three start-ups, four years as a technology project manager for a boutique consulting firm, a summer as an associate at an investment bank, and a year spent as sort of an executive copy girl for one of the disaster-recovery firms at Ground Zero … all before the age of 30.

While working at Ground Zero, Megan started Live From the WTC, a blog focused on economics, business, and cooking. She may or may not have been the first major economics blogger, depending on whether we are allowed to throw outlying variables such as Brad Delong out of the set. From there it was but a few steps down the slippery slope to freelance journalism. She has worked in various capacities for The Economist, where she wrote about economics and oversaw the founding of Free Exchange, the magazine's economics blog. She has also maintained her own blog, Asymmetrical Information, which moved to The Atlantic, along with its owner, in August 2007.

Megan holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. After a lifetime as a New Yorker, she now resides in northwest Washington, D.C., where she is still trying to figure out what one does with an apartment larger than 400 square feet.

How Many Senators Actually Want This Thing to Pass?

By Megan McArdle
Dec 14 2009, 2:03 PM ET Comment

This was the topic of hot discussion in the McSuderman household this morning.  If Lieberman really wants health care reform but is (as he is supposed to, I reluctantly concede) protecting his state's insurance interests, then all the progressives need to do is say "Give us the list!  Whatever you want, you can have it!" The problem is that

a) Reid's apparently seriously pissed off and not acting particularly rationally
b) Lieberman already knows he's going to lose his committees the minute the Democrats don't need him next year and
c) Since it's not clear that he actually wants anything to pass, there's a serious worry that he'll just dance away and make more demands.

But it's not just Lieberman.  I doubt Blanche Lincoln actually wants to vote for this thing, but she needs the party for reelection help in a tough race coming up, so she's perfectly willing to let Nelson and Lieberman kill it if they can.  If they get on board, I suspect that Lincoln might develop sudden last minute doubts.  I'm not sure Landrieu wouldn't as well.  Conservative Democrats facing tough reelections do not actually want to have to go on record as voting either before or against this.

Lieberman is in some ways in the easiest position--the party is not helping him get reelected, and he's going to lose his committees eventually anyway, because everyone's mad at him.  So the other weak sisters are willing to let him take the lead.  But if he gives in, will they go along, or will they just find their own reasons for saying no?


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