Request: Ambinder

A reader wants to know: "I know you read Ambinder's blog. Do you think it's balanced? If not, which way does it incline?" I think it's very balanced. I have no idea what Marc thinks and, indeed, I sometimes think Marc is so committed to reporting and balance that he doesn't know what he thinks. A lot of his posts are reporting -- him telling us what people are telling him, so any given post like that will reflect a bias toward whoever he was talking to, but look at the thing as a whole and it's extremely fair.

But over the past 40 years the tendency has been for Republicans to win and Democrats to lose and for the Democrats who do win to be moderate Southerners. Consequently, I think real horse-race specialists are instinctively skeptical of the idea that liberalism can or will prevail. That's a bummer for liberals to read, but it will change if 2006 is followed up by another big year in 2008.