I conclude the week happy for the brief respite, and depressed because I managed to post what I consider my best Political Animal piece so far late on a Friday afternoon. If you happened to have read it, or will now, thank you.
Here’s what I missed when I was agonizing over that post:
* House Dems introduce a “Voter Empowerment Act” that at first blush looks like a pretty big improvement over the underachieving Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. Shame it won’t go anywhere.
* Chait notes that presidential poll variations largely revolve around estimates of racial/ethnic composition of electorate–which will be big deal on Election Day, too.
* Turns out Mitt called W. to thank him for his recent endorsement. Unclear whether Mitt dropped the phone connection with the speed of those elevator doors that cut short W.’s statement of support.
* Ah, but Obama is not afraid to hang with W. He’s hosting him at the White House for the unveling of Bush’s official portrait. You can only hope there will be “hot mic” moment when 44 says to 43: “Thanks for the economy and the deficit, bro.”
* Walter Shapiro chronicles dismal history of Veep candidates on losing tickets. Word to wise.
* At College Guide, Daniel Luzer talks about bad commencement speakers. And over at Ten Miles Square, Daniel notes the changing definition of “white.”
And in non-political news:
* Facebook hit with $15 billion class-action lawsuit for privacy invasion. Just a coincidence that Facebook expected to harvest $16 billion from IPO.
We’ll be joined tomorrow by weekend blogger Matthew Zeitlin, the guy whose abilities remind me constantly about the misspent nature of my own youth. Make sure you are in a position to say you read him way back in the day.
Selah.
