Oh Lord. Jonathan Chait has done it now: challenging liberals to reevaluate their hostility to football. Doubt I can stay out of this one.

Here are some less existential midday news/views items:

* Lynn Vavreck reports on new research about money being more essential to challengers, and then misapplies it to campaign finance reform.

* Michele Nunn campaign instantly jumps on Perdue “outsourcing” quotes for new ad.

* Obama endorses Muriel Bowser for D.C. mayor.

* Stu Rothenberg hedges his bets a bit after confidently predicting GOP control of Senate.

* At Ten Miles Square, my former colleague (at two places!) Anne Kim addresses a misleading “expose” by the Boston Globe.

And in sorta non-political news:

* New report on sexual harassment in restaurant industry predictably shows conditions remain really, really bad.

As we break for lunch, here’s Radiohead performing the title track from The Bends in 1995, back when it made sense to “wish that something would happen.”

YouTube video

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Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.