Politics

Megan McArdle suggested last year that one way to choose a candidate was to look at their economic advisers and pick the candidate with the smartest team. That being so, she lauded the University of Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee, an advisor to Barack Obama. This week Goolsbee’s in trouble for suggesting that the grotesque nonsense on trade being peddled by the Obama campaign was largely political posturing in advance of tomorrow’s Ohio primary. Let us trust that he’s right. According to a memo written by a Canadian diplomat at the Chicago Consulate: “Noting anxiety among many U.S. domestic audiences about the U.S. economic outlook, Goolsbee candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that

The British political and media classes are, naturally enough, obsessed with and fascinated by the American presidential election process. That leads to the temptation (always yielded to) of trying to find parallels betwene American politicians and their British counterparts (I also do this, obviously). Sometimes, however, this has comical consequences. Thus this morning, Benedict Brogan asks if David Cameron is a British Jimmy Carter even as Fraser Nelson wonders if he’s actually a British Barack Obama. Now, in fairness both Brogan and Nelson are latching on to Cameron’s efforts to “run against Westminster” and offer himself as an uncorrupted “agent of change”. I suppose if you think the Tory glass

Mike Crowley tracks Hillary’s latest desperate cry for help: “Democrats, the majority of whom have favored Hillary in the primary contests held to date…” Mike wonders how she can claim this given that Obama has won more votes than Clinton so far: but of course caucus states don’t count. Besides “primary” of course, the key word here is “Democrats” because obviously independents voting in Democratic primaries don’t count either since, naturally, none of them are going to vote for Obama in November whereas they will all magically gravitate to the candidate they have already rejected. Especially since Hillary is* going to be up against a Republican whom independents famously dislike…

If you need a quick explanation for why Hillary Clinton is about to lose to Barack Obama, consider that her chief strategist is Mark Penn and that he boasts of this: I have won about 70 major elections around the world, including many presidents, and I devised the simple message for Tony Blair in his last successful campaign: ‘Forward, Not Back.’ That’s why Mr Penn is paid the big bucks! (More than $4m from the Hillary campaign alone, IIRC). “Good Stuff, Not Bad Stuff!” But if he thinks this is why ACL Blair won the last election then he’s even more deluded than the average bloated political consultant. Also: American