On a Sunday transcontinental flight , I was stuck in a middle seat next to a woman reading a book filled with crazy conspiracy theories. I minded my own business, thinking of a friend at Berkeley who once saw members of a cult walking down the street toward his house. Though heterosexual, he took off… Read More
The New York Times published yesterday an article about how Barack Obama is using social networks not just to raise money but also to communicate directly with citizens. It is a measure of how much many folks on the web believe in Obama as their candidate that he is being now lobbied via the web…. Read More
Remember Wag the Dog, the 1997 movie about a president who controls reality so completely that he can fabricate a made-for-TV movie? Critics described it as “ringing so true” and “teasingly plausible.” But already it seems very untrue to me. There’s still plenty of stagecraft in this year’s election, but what has been remarkable for… Read More
On an East Coast press tour this summer, Redfin argued that “foreclosure dads” — right-leaning suburb and exurb voters who traditionally wanted smaller government, suddenly feeling so much anxiety as to endorse a more-engaged, centrist government– could be this political season’s soccer moms, swinging the election left instead of right. But talk is cheap. This… Read More
Now that the splurge passed, everyone is arguing about whether Republicans or Democrats are to blame. I had naturally assumed it was the party that favors deregulation, the Republicans. But then Redfin’s Rob McGarty sent me a video of all our old friends, the congressmen from the Housing and Finance Subcommittee. These are the people… Read More