I’m always a little nervous when commenting on the views of political scientists (as opposed to those of, say, Mark Halperin), as I just did in the last post. I’ve taken a grand total of one poli sci course in my life, and that was “Classical Political Theory,” focused almost entirely on Plato and Aristotle. Then again, I spent many years as a professional speechwriter before I even became aware there was this new discipline called “political communications” sprouting up in colleges everywhere. So I try to avoid the chip-on-the-shoulder of the unschooled practitioner, born of the fear of being in the outer darkness of the refuted.
Here are some rough-and-ready midday news/views treats:
* New York Times and Fox News reach exclusive access agreements with former George W. Bush and Sarah Palin consultant who’s penned anti-HRC book. More about this later.
* Brian Beutler notes the unpopularity of ACA mostly rooted in segments of the population that are not really affected by it: seniors.
* National Review‘s Eliana Johnson makes extremely unconvincing case that NH could lift Chris Christie into contention like it did John McCain in 2008. I’ll return to this pinata if it remains a slow news day.
* John Kasich seems to be waiting for divine guidance before deciding whether to inflict his balanced budget amendment crusade on us via a presidential campaign. Please, Lord, no!
* Via E.J. Dionne, California Republicans remind colleagues once again of price of alienating minority voters.
And in non-political news:
* Rob Lowe latest example of celebrity endorsements gone wrong.
As we break for lunch, here’s Tito Puente with “Five Beat Mambo.”
