I'll kick it off with the Obama record on judges...granted, it's not really something that happened this week, exactly, but the NYT ran a high-profile article about it, so there you go. I do think the apparent decision early on to avoid controversial nominees was a reasonable one; the apparent decision, or at least the outcome, of downgrading the importance of filling opening, however, was a flat-out mistake in my view.
What didn't matter? Well, we had the parade of announcements about convention speakers. The keynote speeches will get some attention, so while they won't affect the outcome in November one can argue that they'll matter in other ways, but the rest of it is pretty much nothing.
So that's what I'll start it with. What do you have? What do you think mattered this week?
Saturday, August 18, 2012
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What mattered... how quickly the GOP campaign went into slam mode again. Many people found that the selection of Paul Ryan heralded a change to a more issues and ideas-oriented campaign, but the slams came back so quickly. Was it on Monday? Definitely by Wednesday.
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ReplyDeleteThe drug suspension of Melky Cabrera. Sweet, sweet schadenfreude for this Braves fan. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm getting to this late after a hectic weekend, but...yeah.
DeleteAmong the casualties of the weekend was that I didn't do a baseball post...Steve Rubio, who comments here sometimes, said the main thing there is to say about it, anyway. I guess I should just link to it tomorrow since I didn't get a chance to do a post and comment on it.
So: fair enough.
I'd agree with you that this week has been pretty quiet with regards to political news (of any real substance).
ReplyDeleteThe Medicare dispute was settled this week. Paul Ryans' mom said he's not going to take it away.
ReplyDeleteThe record minima of Arctic sea ice are starting to be broken - 3 or 4 weeks before the yearly minimum is usually reached.
ReplyDeletePIOMAS, whose new model numbers apparently match the numbers measured by Cryosat-2, gave last year's volume minimum to be about 4000 km^3 (that's just a quarter of the minimum modeled for 1979). And the loss from minimum 2006 to minimum 2007 was about 2500 km^3. The loss from minimum 2009 to minimum 2010 was about the same amount.
Arctic sea ice is observed by several observers using different instruments, which is why they aren't giving the same numbers. But the year-to-year comparison is pretty clear.
Arctic sea ice PIOMAS volume numbers : https://sites.google.com/site/arctischepinguin/home/piomas
Other observers : https://sites.google.com/site/arcticseaicegraphs/
@Ambi Valent - I'm guessing that the polar ice is melting faster every year, but that's just a guess. I can be impressed by jargon, but please give us some sort of projection to be inferred from the data you quoted.
ReplyDeleteAs for what happened this week? Ryan happened. I'm hoping that most people will see him for the dilated-eyes (maybe deer-in-the-headlights) fanatic that he is and that he and Santorum (sp?) are two peas in a pod when it comes to women's reproductive health and I hope that no one tells him that he should shave more often and buy better suits that fit him.... It doesn't matter what Ryan's mom says, he'd abandon her on an iceberg today if it would get him a couple more electoral votes.
I'm not an expert, I just follow the numbers and satellite images. I guess the solid ice pack that still exists this year will have turned to floes within the next 3 years (unlike an iceberg, a floe is initially wide but not very thick). And within 10 years, it will almost certainly be gone in September.
DeleteThe Arctic is already warmer than the long-time average all year (that often means just less frosty), which means there's less of a temperature difference between the polar and the temperate areas. Which weakens the polar jet stream, which in turn makes it easier for polar and temperate areas to exchange air, a phenomenon known as WACCy weather (warm arctic, cold continents).
The actual result will depend on the weather - calm and cloudy is best for the ice in general, highs in June are bad, as lots of sunlight reaches the ice, as are storm lows late in the melt season when, as thin ice can break easily and the sea can be mixed up by the storm.
The PA judge's decision to uphold the PA voter ID law. Because of the composition of the PA Supreme Court (where it goes next) and the time to election, this probably means the law will be effect in Nov., and so it's conceivable that this decision decided the election. Not likely but possible.
ReplyDeleteNot likely and not really possible.
DeleteNew voter ID laws in Indiana and Georgia didn't have much of any effect on the 2008 presidential election in those states.
Romney has to team up with Ryan and the Campaign managers to improve their campaign strategy. Obama loves it when Ryan talks about Medicare. Obama loves to drive a wedge between Ryan and Romney. If this continues, Romney will lose.
ReplyDeleteThe Ryan Week 2 mattered in that it wasn't as explosive as expected and the chemistry between the two candidates seems better than expected. Yet the team seems the opposite of the message they might wish to send to independents and the demographics going forward.
ReplyDeleteThe campaign, meanwhile, otherwise doesn't look like it will be more enlightening or pleasant.