Ken Houghton

Christopher Buckley leads the Republican Party to water, and speculates on watching them sink:

...GOP pin-up girl Sarah Palin.

I’ll stipulate that that’s condescending, if my former confreres on the Right will stipulate that had Gov. Palin’s first name been “Bob” or “Chuck,” her surname would still be unrecognizable to 90 percent of the American electorate.

The other pull quote was pulling and sits in the center of the article. While I encourage you to Read the Whole Thing, it really is too delicious not to requote as well. Rendered by Buckley as a parenthetic:

Nexis and Google have so far failed to unearth evidence of any previous candidate for the U.S. vice presidency being called—by their own campaign, no less—a “whack job.”*

Read the Whole Thing, including some of the comments.

*One guesses that memories of Admiral Stockdale, besides whose accomplishments John McCain looks like the inept cadet he was, have escaped Google and Nexus, since he was surely called the equivalent or worse.

Ken Houghton

Christopher Buckley leads the Republican Party to water, and speculates on watching them sink:

...GOP pin-up girl Sarah Palin.

I’ll stipulate that that’s condescending, if my former confreres on the Right will stipulate that had Gov. Palin’s first name been “Bob” or “Chuck,” her surname would still be unrecognizable to 90 percent of the American electorate.

The other pull quote was pulling and sits in the center of the article. While I encourage you to Read the Whole Thing, it really is too delicious not to requote as well. Rendered by Buckley as a parenthetic:

Nexis and Google have so far failed to unearth evidence of any previous candidate for the U.S. vice presidency being called—by their own campaign, no less—a “whack job.”*

Read the Whole Thing, including some of the comments.

*One guesses that memories of Admiral Stockdale, besides whose accomplishments John McCain looks like the inept cadet he was, have escaped Google and Nexus, since he was surely called the equivalent or worse.

Thursday morning editorial:

The voters may be full of hope about the looming Obama Presidency, but so far investors aren't. No President-elect in the postwar era has been greeted with a more audible hiss from Wall Street. The Dow has lost 1,342 points, or about 14%, since the election, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting similar skids. The Dow fell another 4.7% yesterday.

Much of this is due to hedge fund deleveraging,* as well as dreadful corporate earnings reports and pessimism that the recession will be deeper than many had hoped.** We also don't want to read too much into short-term market moves.*** But there's little doubt that uncertainty, and some fear, over Barack Obama's economic agenda is also contributing to the downdraft.****

What WSJ readers did on seeing that (via Google Finance):

And, lest you think I'm cherry-picking to avoid the broader markets, from the same source:

*This is from the paper that argued continually until October that the hedge funds were running perfectly.

**There might be a link there.

***Really?? So how do they explain the next sentence?

****This is on a par with deleveraging, lack of investment, lack of profits, lack of markets that clear, fading real estate values for the mall-stores, and the multiple recent retail bankruptcies (Circuit City, Ponderosa, Applebee's, etc.)? Looking at the six-month graphic, it appears that the market hit a bottom on October 27th [Oct27 close: 8,175.77, more than 100 points below the level when the editorial was written], bought into the Obama rumor, and has been selling some gains on the Obama fact and the Fed easing and Hank Paulson's admitting he has never known what he was doing.

Thursday morning editorial:

The voters may be full of hope about the looming Obama Presidency, but so far investors aren't. No President-elect in the postwar era has been greeted with a more audible hiss from Wall Street. The Dow has lost 1,342 points, or about 14%, since the election, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting similar skids. The Dow fell another 4.7% yesterday.

Much of this is due to hedge fund deleveraging,* as well as dreadful corporate earnings reports and pessimism that the recession will be deeper than many had hoped.** We also don't want to read too much into short-term market moves.*** But there's little doubt that uncertainty, and some fear, over Barack Obama's economic agenda is also contributing to the downdraft.****

What WSJ readers did on seeing that (via Google Finance):

And, lest you think I'm cherry-picking to avoid the broader markets, from the same source:

*This is from the paper that argued continually until October that the hedge funds were running perfectly.

**There might be a link there.

***Really?? So how do they explain the next sentence?

****This is on a par with deleveraging, lack of investment, lack of profits, lack of markets that clear, fading real estate values for the mall-stores, and the multiple recent retail bankruptcies (Circuit City, Ponderosa, Applebee's, etc.)? Looking at the six-month graphic, it appears that the market hit a bottom on October 27th [Oct27 close: 8,175.77, more than 100 points below the level when the editorial was written], bought into the Obama rumor, and has been selling some gains on the Obama fact and the Fed easing and Hank Paulson's admitting he has never known what he was doing.

By Spencer

Everyone interested in analyzing the election should look at these maps:

Maps of the 2008 US presidential election results.

the difference when you map by population, etc.., rather than by land area are striking

By Spencer

Everyone interested in analyzing the election should look at these maps:

Maps of the 2008 US presidential election results.

the difference when you map by population, etc.., rather than by land area are striking

I assume everyone heard about Starbucks offering a free cup of what they call coffee to anyone who went in on Tuesday and said they voted.

Via a young woman who would probably prefer I not name her, a store in NYC went one better. (And the offers were non-rival.)

I assume everyone heard about Starbucks offering a free cup of what they call coffee to anyone who went in on Tuesday and said they voted.

Via a young woman who would probably prefer I not name her, a store in NYC went one better. (And the offers were non-rival.)

While there was a lot of blather about "values voters" swinging the 2004 Presidential election to the man who had none, the real story has always been that the HENRYs went for W's policies.

That changed in 2008:

Guess who won Joe the Plumber’s vote...real people who make about $42,000 a year, the median income for plumbers and pipefitters. Barack Obama carried hard-working Americans of that income stripe by 10 points, according to exit polls.

And the only voters who were told directly that their taxes would go up under a new Democratic president? Obama took the rich as well, winning by six points that small sliver of the electorate that makes more than $200,000 [per] year.

The HENRYs can do basic probability calculations, it seems. "Saving" 5% on your taxes while losing 15% on your non-deductible investments is not a great long-term strategy, no matter what Greg Mankiw may have decided to hear from his self-selected group.

While there was a lot of blather about "values voters" swinging the 2004 Presidential election to the man who had none, the real story has always been that the HENRYs went for W's policies.

That changed in 2008:

Guess who won Joe the Plumber’s vote...real people who make about $42,000 a year, the median income for plumbers and pipefitters. Barack Obama carried hard-working Americans of that income stripe by 10 points, according to exit polls.

And the only voters who were told directly that their taxes would go up under a new Democratic president? Obama took the rich as well, winning by six points that small sliver of the electorate that makes more than $200,000 [per] year.

The HENRYs can do basic probability calculations, it seems. "Saving" 5% on your taxes while losing 15% on your non-deductible investments is not a great long-term strategy, no matter what Greg Mankiw may have decided to hear from his self-selected group.

(hat tip to Jo Walton)

(hat tip to Jo Walton)

Stick a fork in it.

Stick a fork in it.

The highest bid price for any Republican Presidential candidate in 2012, as of right now, goes to Caribou Barbie!

It will be interesting to check this a few weeks from now.

The highest bid price for any Republican Presidential candidate in 2012, as of right now, goes to Caribou Barbie!

It will be interesting to check this a few weeks from now.

Obama 15, McCain 6. First Dem win there since Hubert Horatio Humphrey (and we all know how that turned out).

Meanwhile, polling places in NY and NJ have lines out the door. Guess they must be "battleground" states.

Update: Ooops. Lead already down to 66.7% of the vote (see link above). And Floyd Norris confirms that Brooklyn, too, is deluged with voters:

I went to vote this morning, arriving at the Caton School in Brooklyn at 5:55 a.m. I have been voting at that school’s gym since 1984, and have never had to stand in line behind more than one or two people.

This morning, there were about 90 people in line ahead of me, waiting for the polls to open at 6 a.m. Some had brought folding chairs.

Obama 15, McCain 6. First Dem win there since Hubert Horatio Humphrey (and we all know how that turned out).

Meanwhile, polling places in NY and NJ have lines out the door. Guess they must be "battleground" states.

Update: Ooops. Lead already down to 66.7% of the vote (see link above). And Floyd Norris confirms that Brooklyn, too, is deluged with voters:

I went to vote this morning, arriving at the Caton School in Brooklyn at 5:55 a.m. I have been voting at that school’s gym since 1984, and have never had to stand in line behind more than one or two people.

This morning, there were about 90 people in line ahead of me, waiting for the polls to open at 6 a.m. Some had brought folding chairs.