I don't think bringing in the Edwards to prove a point benefits science. The Edwards also had a earlier tragedy in the death of their son. What was their marriage like before and after that? Was their blame? There is a great deal of stuff that goes on in a marriage. There are bargains made. What were their bargains? What were their secrets? We don't know. The writer should have stuck to the percentages i.e. the facts and left out the celebrity aspect.

John Adams is a quality reporter who has often taken on the powers in Montana. I would have liked Adams to talk to one more source outside the Democratic Party machine in the state. The head of the labor union, Feaver, was a good source. One more Baucus skeptic might have given a little more balance to the conventional wisdom of Bergren, Elliott and Sabato. The idea that the people of Montana will forget what happened in the Finance Committee is also conventional wisdom that may ... More »

There is nothing new about health care reform in this story. It is just reporting inside the beltway maneuvering and sausage making. What are the real costs of health care reform? Will the CBO factor in bankruptcies caused by medical bills? Will the CBO factor in our American companies growing disadvantage world wide because they have the burden of health care expenses for their employees that the companies in the grown up countries don't have? Who were these doctors summoned to ... More »

Yes, it is an example of a clearly thought out refutation of the propaganda put out by the sickness industry.

I no longer consider a story on health care a story of quality if the reporter only interviews congress people. Without the perspective of organizations like Physicians for a National Health Care Plan, we simply get conventional wisdom. So we get cliches like Schumer's "keeping insurance companies honest" with a public option. How do you keep insurance companies "hones"? Isn't it their mandate to make profits and deny care? Why should there be profit in health care? Isn't ... More »

This is quality journalism. It is a critique of the coverage of health care reform and how the same mistakes of 1993 are being repeated now.This article goes beyond the usual suspects and identifies key figures in health care analysis. It also talks about health care issues and not just the sausage making process of how legislation gets done. It identifies how most reporting has used a similar meme to tell the story i.e. that this time things are different than 1993. But the ... More »

This journalist has been at this a long time and so adds great historical perspective. It is also timely and a call to action for young people to take up journalism as a vocation and not a way to make a quick buck.

Okay, so let me get this straight. We are supposed to forget the “finer points i.e. what Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Rutledge, Madison, Paine, etc honed down to the essence of democracy and instead rely on somebody who just won’t embarrass us and somebody who wants to negotiate rather than dictate? How thin our sense of democracy has become. So for trying to make a silk purse out of sow's ear (rationalizing/weaseling out of his early choice), Cesca gets a C. For not having done ... More »

From the author of "The Wisdom of Crowds" we get yet another terrific and easy to understand view of economics and how it effects our world. Having work in Hollywood, I can attest to the lousy way that many projects are chosen. There is more "monkey see, monkey do" than real risk taking. Suroweicki doesn't tell us how MediaPredict will pay it's on line readers, if at all. But I'm interested in the application of large, diverse, and independent decision making to take the place of ... More »

It's an opinion piece about the old idea that you can defang the Democrats by making them appear as wussies. He uses George McGovern's loss and John Kerry's loss as examples of what the Republicans need to do in 2008. In 1972 the country was bitterly divided still over the war. Today, the majority of Americans want out and fast. I don't think his thesis then holds water now. He also uses the word "sniping" for Democrats criticizing each other which, of course, is an attempt to make ... More »

Showing a picture of Edwards speaking at Cooper Union where he gave a substanitive speech on problems facing the middle class and poor and how government can help enforce standards and protect its citizens from abuses such as predatory lending, but then not commenting on the substance of the speech in the entire article is bizarre. Instead the author takes a story already reported and implies that Edwards has no business talking about these issues because he spent 1.3 million of ... More »

This is an interview by a Pundit and not a story by a reporter. Everyone knows that Russert plays "gotcha" journalism. But Biden and Edwards, his first two Democrats did very well. Richardson flunked. For all the hoopla about his resume, he didn't seem ready for prime time. He admitted to not one but many mistakes or saying "I'm not a model of perfection". His resume may be long but it is also lacklustre. His state is at the bottom of the wage scale. His record as Energy Secretary ... More »

The authors got some interesting quotes from a variety of people. They were able to put Senator Obama's fundraising in the larger context of his rise as a politician and what groups he was able to tap for money. The authors also showed some of the insides of Chicago Democratic Politics. There's a lot of money and power in Chicago and it has always been an important if not the most important player in many primaries. Fundraising stories can be hard to follow, but this one was easy to ... More »

This "report" basically uses corporate news talking points to discredit the "Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party" as Howard Dean would say. I've been following this "reporter" since 2003 and am amazed that he is still considered a reporter rather than a commentator. His attack on Democrats is well documented in "Fubar" by Sam Seder. So here again, it's the same old same old and not "news". He throws in a couple comments from Schumer and the political science professor saying that ... More »

The reporter sees no nuance in the three leading Democratic presidential contenders position on Iraq. But just taking one example of John Edwards. The sentence prior to his "all options are on the table" was "The recent UN resolution ordering Iran to halt the enrichment of uranium was not enough. We need meaningful political and economic sanctions." This he fleshed out in an interview with Ezra Klein in which he talked about carrots and sticks. The carrots being providing nuclear ... More »