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Obama's 100 days: Why the hype?

Jon Stewart on why the media feels the need to critique every last one of Obama's first 144,000 minutes. (Start at around the 2:00 mark)

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How to Judge a Guy in 100 Days
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Andrew Sullivan: a brave pioneer

I should have recommend this earlier, but please do read Johann Hari's brilliant profile of Andrew Sullivan.

He reminds me what a brave and inventive pioneer Andrew was on the issue of gay equality. I'd almost forgotten the huge row he had within the gay political community over the issue of gay assimilation.

I remember talking to Andrew at the time about those who argued that gay marriage would weaken the institution. He argued that the opposite would happen. But his big row came, ironically enough, with other gays. Some on the left said that gay marriage was a betrayal of homosexuality.

Andrew is winning his battle. Johann's piece reminded me of it, and what a spectacular person he has been, really ever since the days when I first heard his name from a friend at unversity.

Read the piece here.

Pulitzer Party

If you're wondering which US hacks scooped the Pulitzer Prize pool yesterday, you can find out here. The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson won the award for commentary.

And in a depressing sign of the times, one of the winners was laid off by his paper earlier this year.

The New Statesman this week...

Those of you who haven't seen this week's New Statesman might want to take a look. It features one Alastair Campbell as guest editor.

Here's my contribution.

Larry Summers: Touchy about his height?

Shenanigans spots the best correction of the week in The New Republic:

Correction: This piece originally stated that Larry Summers is 'slightly below average in height.' We regret the error

Perhaps his height was incorrectly calculated by a female mathematician? Either that or someone's feeling nervous about his position on Obama's basketball team.

John O'Sullivan responds

Over at the National Review, John O'Sullivan has posted a response to my open letter.

You can read it here. I'll continue the conversation in a later post.

Why Labour shouldn't be confident

This morning's front page article in The Guardian contained this observation:

Labour can draw comfort from the fact that public alarm about the economic crisis has levelled out. Asked about their personal financial circumstances, 51% say they are fairly or very confident — up from 43% in December. Only 48% say they are not confident.

My theory is the opposite. Increased confidence makes people less risk averse. It's time for a change grows stronger and no time for a novice weaker.

(Hat tip: The excellent Marbury)

Stephen Pollard is back...

Over at the Daily Express they turn out to be a forgiving lot. The prodigal son has returned. They've welcomed back Stephen Pollard on their comment page today (which I think does Richard Desmond credit).

And what's their reward?

If I've read the code in Stephen's piece correctly, he has only gone and called Desmond an Iinittttos.

Appleyard on Taleb

I realise that it's been months since this was published, but I have just been re-reading a profile of Nicolas Nassim Taleb written by the peerless Bryan Appleyard.

I think you ought to find a few minutes for it, as well.

Jon Stewart on the economic stimulus

Thousands of miles from Davos, Jon Stewart takes his turn as the prophet of gloom.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

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