My Friends Made a Funny Video

Brought to you by: Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Zack Whedon and Nick Towne. I'm jealous of their talents.

Why Krugman Is Wrong

Barack Obama and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have been engaged in something of a public spat. Krugman has criticized Obama's willingness to negotiate with drug and insurance companies over health care reform as willfully naive. In Krugman's opinion, real change necessitates hard-nosed tactics, not compromise. Besides, Republicans and pharmaceutical companies will never compromise. So what good is a touchy-feely Obama, who wants us all to "just get along."

Yesterday I debated with a colleague who leans closer to Krugman on these issues than Obama.

My response? Real change requires a public mandate coupled with compromise; that the Democrats lack a mandate because they have no easily identifiable brand the public supports; that Obama is in a better position than any other candidate (particularly Hillary Clinton) to create a brand of reconciliation and pragmatism; and that a mandate and compromise will cause Republicans and corporate interests to change by public will. By contrast, electing a Democratic bull-dozer to take on the GOP the way George W. Bush has taken on the world will not yield positive results. Only bitterness and temporary change.

To my surprise, these points were made much more intelligently in a recent Newsweek column by Jonathan Alter. Alter authored a book on Franklin D. Roosevelt and provides some history lessons on how FDR successfully implemented the New Deal (note: it was not, contrary to popular belief, by bull-dozing opposition). The full article is here, with some highlights below:

Krugman is a populist. He writes that if nominated, Obama would win, "but not as big as a candidate who ran on a more populist platform." This is facile and ahistorical. How many 20th Century American presidents have been elected on a populist platform? That would be zero, Paul. You could even include Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000. Instead of exploiting the peace and prosperity of the 1990s, Gore ran on a "people vs. the powerful" message. It never ignited.

Krugman says that pundits like me who reject sharp anti-corporate rhetoric and prefer cooperation are "projecting their own desires onto the public." We'll see. But last time I checked, millions of Americans still work for corporations or aspire to do so and bashing them wholesale is a loser politically. It works sometimes in Democratic primaries with a heavy labor vote (though not for Dick Gephardt). But not in general elections. The last two Democrats elected president-Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1992-also campaigned during recessions. Both were smart enough to reject populism in favor of a responsive but upbeat message. ...

When I asked [John] Edwards how any agreement could be reached without at least talking to these players in the system, he said he would offer a seat at the table to members of Congress who represent their interests. In other words, it's OK to have the congressional stooges there, but not the interests that pull their strings?

The Edwards alternative-to simply overrun them-is unrealistic. Even a 1932-style mandate at the ballot box (highly unlikely) wouldn't make them capitulate. Look what happened when New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, elected in 2006 with a huge mandate, tried to "steamroll" a bunch of hacks in Albany. He got his head handed to him.

To call Obama "anti-change," as Paul Krugman does, is anti-common sense. Leadership requires a mixture of confrontation and compromise, with room for the losers to save face. "They have to feel the heat to see the light," LBJ liked to say. That heat is best applied up close. In public. Across the big table.

More Huckabee

I've been amazed at the level of vitriol expressed by certain wings of the Republican party towards Mike Huckabee. Ron Dreher of the Dallas Morning News has written an extremely interesting editorial on the matter. You can read the article in its entirety here, but I've posted highlights below:

The campaign's purest Huckenfreudian moment so far came on Sunday's Meet the Press, when Mitt Romney protested Mr. Huckabee's calling President Bush's foreign policy "arrogant."

"That's an insult to the president, and Mike Huckabee should apologize to the president," Mr. Romney whined.

Or what? He's going to take away the Huck's GOP pledge pin? Mr. Romney's unctuous response brought to mind Doug Neidermeyer, the Animal House brown-noser vexed by the Delta House rabble.

The pathetic Romney plaint is the mournful cry of a Republican establishment in meltdown. Last week, National Review Online blogger Lisa Schiffren, a Giuliani backer, laid into Mr. Huckabee with a screed pithily summarized by Mr. Douthat as, "Go back to Dogpatch, you stupid hillbilly."

Alas for the GOP and for the old guard religious-right leadership, the view from Dogpatch these days is looking up for the populist Huckabee. Could it be that cultural and religious conservatives are fed up with being treated like useful idiots by the Republican establishment? ...

But this populist revolt is not just about religion. Mr. Huckabee calls himself the candidate of Main Street, taking on a party that has become "a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street." He's a throwback to a kind of conservatism that had a home in the Democratic Party before it embraced the counterculture – and created Reagan Democrats.

In a time of mounting economic anxiety, Mr. Huckabee could do worse than to position himself as an outsider critic of a party that just last week blocked an exceedingly modest tax increase on big oil companies to fund research into alternative fuels. ...

Anybody Can Paint

This is a fun waste of time.

I Am The Walrus. Goo-Goo-Ga-Joob!

I like Mike Huckabee. I likely wouldn't vote for the man, but I find him the least offensive of all the Republican presidential candidates. I like that he views liberal opinions as undesirable rather than the product of brain damage. I like that he says what he believes rather than what's going to endear him to the party faithful. I like that he's willing to challenge President Bush's foreign policy strategy, even if it means diverging from his party. I like that he hasn't fall to prey to the exploitative, fear-mongering immigration rhetoric of his party's other candidates. I like that he stresses the importance of the arts in society. I like that he understands that harsher prison sentences for poor minorities convicted of the same crimes as affluent Caucasians is unacceptable. I like that he doesn't want to encroach on the educational decisions of state governments, but believes the federal government can influence those decisions through tone and values. I like that he doesn't have an irrational aversion to taxes if the situation calls for it. I like that he's so hated by Matt Drudge and The Weekly Standard.

To be sure, there are lots of things I dislike about Mike Huckabee. I'm aware of his early 1990s, comments regarding sequestering people with AIDS. I dislike his belief in a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. I dislike his stance on abortion. And so on and so on. Like I said, the man's not going to get my vote, but he's the least offensive of the bunch.

Recently there's been some controversy about a Huckabee ad wishing Iowa voters a Merry Christmas. The Catholic league has suggested that a book case in the background of the ad is placed to give the subliminal impression of a floating cross. Huckabee shrugged off the criticism, and responded with this:

"I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards it says, 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead.'"

This is easily the funniest line of the campaign. Anyhow, you can watch the ad and the floating cross here:

How To Spot a Cylon

Get your favorite nerd a great stocking stuffer here.

Never get caught off guard again! Cylon Safety Information Sheet #8, issued by QMx on behalf of the Colonial Ministry of Information, contains 10 tips that can save your life and the lives of your fellow Colonials, so heed them well:

1. ★Do they ask questions about classified subjects?
2. ★Do they seem unusually strong, smart or self-assured?
3. ★Do they say God instead of Gods?
4. ★Have you seen them before, but you know it's not the same person?
5. ★Do you see them hanging around secured or restricted areas?
6. ★Do they seem to hear music that no one else can hear?
7. ★Do they seem unusually fearless, as if death has no meaning for them?
8. ★Do they exhibit sociopathic behavior around other humans, especially defenseless children?
9. ★Are they unusually adept, almost empathic, with machines?
10. ★Does their spine glow red when they get... excited?

Not Penny's Boat

1. I'm still waiting to see a number of movies (namely There Will Be Blood, Sweeney Todd, Charlie Wilson's War, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly and Juno) before offering my thoughts for the best of 2007. In the meantime, The Onion's AV Club has offered there thoughts on the worst movies of the year. I'm happy to report that I haven't seen any of the films on the list. Number 1? Norbit. Not on their list but on my list: Dan in Real Life.

2. Here's a very funny review of the upcoming J.J. Abrams' produced movie, Cloverfield (choice line: "I don't know if the movie makers are looking for poster quotes, but this movie is like a pussy that eats YOU out."). For those not in the know, Cloverfield is the upcoming geek movie de jure, about a monster that goes ape-shit destroying New York City. Inspired by real-life footage of the 9/11 attacks, the movie is entirely shot from the hand-held digital cameras of its characters. Cloverfield mashes its way into theaters this January. You can watch the trailer here.

3. Set your DVR's - new episodes of LOST return Thursday, Jan. 31st at 9pm. Due to the ongoing writers' strike, only 7 of the season's 16 episodes have been completed - so we'll have to sit through a hiatus between episodes similar to last season. A preview for season 4 is below, and a link to the ongoing Missing Pieces "webisodes" can be found here. Also for fans of The Wire, the upcoming season will feature actor Lance Reddick (Lt. Cedric Daniels)