As I mentioned, I have a new column up at TNR about the GOP field and how it got that way. Elias Isquith has a response sketching out some of the damage that can come from having a field filled with vanity and (in Jonathan Chait's phrase) "business plan" candidates. Good points!
More good stuff:
1. Lots and lots of WH 2012. Andrew Sprung on Romney and David S. Bernstein on Romney and gay Republicans; Conor Friedersdorf reads Herman Cain's old columns and Dan Drezner reads Cain's foreign policy plan. Also Nate Silver on New Hampshire.
2. Josh Putnam's overview of the schedule situation, and you all know to check out his FHQ for updates.
3. Remembering Bill Clinton's actual first term, from Seth Masket; Brendan Nyhan shoots down Truman comparisons.
4. Listen to Stan Collender: budget process reforms are no substitute for policy agreement.
5. Paul Krugman, evidence-based Keynesian. Amity Shlaes? Not so much with the evidence; see a nice graph from Mike Kimel.
6. CLASS Act demise: how does it affect ACA financing? Jonathan Cohn has it. And Sarah Kliff with an important update on ACA implementation in the states.
7. Wonderful Garrett Epps essay about the Constitution. And Matt Glassman on one of the technical things the Constitution got wrong.
8. Al Kamen has a judicial nominations update.
9. And Kevin Drum marvels at everything coming up culture war.
I'd say Drum is right in a narrow sense: conservatives over the past decade see culture wars wherever they look. But 1) this isn't something that just popped up in the last ten years, 2) conservatives aren't the only ones, and 3) there IS a culture war going on, and there has been for a very long time, so we shouldn't be surprised when people see that war.
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