- Jacob Weisberg on Obama's Brilliant First Year:
About one thing, left and right seem to agree these days: Obama hasn't done anything yet. ...
This conventional wisdom about Obama's first year isn't just premature—it's sure to be flipped on its head by the anniversary of his inauguration on Jan. 20. If, as seems increasingly likely, Obama wins passage of a health care reform a bill by that date, he will deliver his first State of the Union address having accomplished more than any other postwar American president at a comparable point in his presidency. This isn't an ideological point or one that depends on agreement with his policies. It's a neutral assessment of his emerging record—how many big, transformational things Obama is likely to have made happen in his first 12 months in office.
- And speaking of President Obama, here's a photograph I'm guessing not many people thought would show up in the official White House Photo Stream over at flickr.
- Amanda Marcotte, who did sensational blogging of Mad Men this season, turns her eye to the character of Liz Lemon on 30 Rock, exploring the question of what's up with the show's political stance. Does it have one? Is it liberal? Why is Liz Lemon character (the liberal?) always giving in to Jack Donaghy (the conservative?)? In an essay that really shows Marcotte's strength as a commentator on that place where politics and popular culture intersect, she writes:
To really understand what’s going on with "30 Rock", you have to accept two of the show’s most basic premises fully: 1) Liz is a fuck-up and 2) Jack is a master of a world created by people like him for people like him. These two facts are unrelated in a causal way, but they do go a long way to explaining the characters’ very believable friendship. More importantly, they explain why it’s both true that Jack is always right and in control, and yet the moral center of the show is still (mostly) liberal.
- Where are they now? Unfortunately, a lot of the members of the Bush administration are flocking back from the shallow political wilderness in which they found themselves for a while, and Dave Weigel has the lowdown on where they're landing.
- The Columbia Journalism Review recounts the busting of the so-called Sudokubomber, who was caught cheating by the Philadelphia Inquirer, sponsor of the Sudoku National Championship. Sherlock Holmes meets math geek expertise.
- What's a vote worth? In the most recent New York City race for mayor, $183.
- Richard Florida, in The Geography of Obesity, looks at BMI's by region and by the occupations most associated with those states. Some findings:
Obesity is lower in states with higher concentrations of artists, musicians, and entertainers (with a correlation of-.6), those with larger concentrations of gays and lesbians (-.5), and immigrants (-.5). This likely reflects broader structural characteristics of those states, as more highly educated states also tend to be more tolerant and open to diversity.
- One of the eeriest optical illusions I've run across lately.
