Matthew Yglesias

WSJ: "But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them." Obama's also taller than average, which is well-known to be a disadvantage in presidential politics. In all seriousness, if the… More »

As sometimes happens when I read Marc Ambinder's blog, today I'm puzzled by the mentality of the campaign reporter: While we've been focusing on the race card, the Republican echo chamber has been sounding full tilt about Barack Obama's Jimmy Carter-esque turn as advice columnist to Americans about energy. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity spent part of their broadcast mocking Obama for urging Americans to inflate their tires to help conserve gasoline.Obama had a… More »

Despite yesterday's news that the economy is back to growing (albeit slowly) it seems job losses are still mounting. With inflation also on the rise, my understanding is that basically we're screwed. More »

I think the McCain campaign's "Celebrity" ad and the whole line about Barack Obama being too arrogant or something are pretty ridiculous, but it's a bit puzzling to me to see liberals expressing the view that these are some kind of crypto-racist lines of attack. Given that Obama's black, and America's history, I think it's always going to be possible to read some kind of racial subtext into attacks on him. But both of these are lines of argument you could easily… More »

For reasons that remain a bit murky, the Bush administration, which has a terrible record on everything, seems to have a great record on homelessness. There was a HUD report out earlier this week indicating that some reforms in approach that the administration -- more specifically, a guy Philip Mangano -- has implemented are being stunningly successful and we've seen a 30 percent drop in homelessness between 2005 and 2007. Dana Goldstein has an informative brief… More »

Chris Sheridan notes that LeBron James opened Team USA's exhibition game against Turkey with a FIBA move, swatting a ball that had hit the rim and was likely to bound into the hoop away from the basket. That's goaltending in America, but legitimate defense under FIBA rules. That seems like an important step to me. Over the past few years, I've consistently thought that the fact that the rules have been an underplayed problem for American teams in international… More »

I see I'm not the only one who thought John McCain's "Celebrity" ad would be a good opportunity for a Hole reference, as Michael Crowley goes there too opining: P.S. Terrible video but this album actually had its moments. I agree that Hole gets a bad rap, but really Live Through This has the vast majority of the listenable material. Did you know that Melissa auf der Mar has a blog? More »

The Bush administration wants to say that its officials have carte blanche to ignore congressional subpoenas, to which Judge John Bates replies: The executive’s current claim of absolute immunity from compelled Congressional process for senior presidential aides is without any support in the case law. Mark Kleiman observes that this is the legal equivalent of being told your argument is bullshit. For real analysis read Marty Lederman. More »

With some press outlets now pointing out that John McCain's dishonest ads are dishonest, I got a few commenters wondering if I'll stop complaining about McCain's cozy relationship with the press. I think I'll do that when reporters stop crediting him with "irrepressible candor" for the most banal Q&A interactions imaginable. The press is still treating him the way proud parents treat their kid, perhaps willing to discipline him gently when he gets out of line but… More »

Pivoting off the news about John McCain's $520 shoes, Chris Hayes wonders if the press will ever notice that John McCain is a rich, out of touch elitist. Well, I have my doubts. But this stuff is relevant. Clearly, it's possible for people who've lived lives of privilege (FDR is the famous example) to promote policies that are beneficial to people who are struggling. But you really do see with McCain a lot of proposals that seem to reflect a lack of understanding… More »

The Hill takes a look at what smart growth and transit advocates are doing to try to take advantage of high gas prices to convince people that a shift of federal policy away from encouraging auto-dependency is the right way to go. Apparently folks have "coalesced around a bill introduced by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) called the Transportation and Housing Choices for Gas Price Relief Act of 2008." In… More »

Energy efficiency is probably the cheapest, easiest renewable resource we have available to us. For a long time, energy was cheap and national policy was to make it as cheap as possible. That's left us with a legacy of infrastructure and appliances built on the assumption that wasteful use of energy is no big deal. But it is a bit deal and we have a lot of the needed technology and know-how needed to deal with it. Which I assume is what Barack Obama was getting… More »

Pardon me if you've seen this point elsewhere, but in what sense is John McCain not a celebrity? I've seen him on the covers of magazines, on television, in newspapers, doing guest appearances on SNL, etc.: Could you possibly be a major party presidential nominee and not be a celebrity? But in particular, McCain actually stands out among politicians as being someone who was a famous celebrity first and then parlayed his fame into a political career, rather than… More »

Kevin Drum's not the only liberal upset by a political press that can't seem to hold John McCain responsible for John McCain's campaign tactics. But isn't the image painted in today's stories -- of McCain as a kind of passive bystander to decisions being made on his behalf by his staff -- sort of more damning? The presidency, after all, involves significant managerial challenges. And neither McCain nor Barack Obama has ever been a mayor or a governor or run an… More »

Say the word "HMO" and most Americans start reaching for their revolver. But most people who look at health policy and health economics agree that the HMOs were actually on to something, and that there really needs to be more scrutiny of which procedures are actually helpful and more emphasis on prevention rather than costly treatment. One question is why didn't this work out better? Paul Krugman's theory: [I]f costs are to be controlled, someone has to act as a… More »

Back when I was in college and writing a blog, nobody even knew what a blog was. These days, though, the kids have all kinds of fancy new media including a podcast called The Progressive Student Voice which, as you can guess, is progressive politics for students. Yesterday I was interviewed for a segment on their latest episode talking mostly about Heads in the Sand and its applicability to our current political moment, but also a bit about blogging in general… More »

Business Week: "This ad asserts a McCain campaign talking-point that Obama wouldn’t make time for wounded troops unless cameras were allowed to follow him, but did make time to work out at a gym. This, of course, is a lie. It’s a blatant lie." But also the following scoop: What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the… More »

Profits way up at Exxon and Shell. That sounds to me like a good time to implement John McCain's plan for a "summer holiday" tax cut for oil companies! After all, with all these skyrocketing profits their tax bill must be on the rise as well. More »

The competition in the Western Conference just gets tougher as Houston acquired Ron Artest in exchange for draft picks and Bobby Jackson. Good news for Houston. If only they could get some recycling bins. More »

I criticized Michael Scherer's article comparing the McCain and Obama tax plans, but he's done a great post at Swampland following up on the article and laying out very clearly why it is that Barack Obama's plan would cut taxes for most people and how it differs from McCain's plan. More »