Posts Tagged ‘Ezra Klein’
Our Morning Roundup: The Day After Food Day

Good morning, City Desk readers. If you missed our Food Day coverage yesterday, please give it a looksie now. There were sports. There was meat. There was heartache. Dumpster-diving, even. And other things that will alternately make you salivate and cry and dry heave. All in all, it was a comprehensive food day.
49% of Americans are inhumane monsters and other epithets, after the jump.
Our Morning Roundup: Kausfiles Runs JournoList Leak
JournoList, the top-secret liberals-only Google listserve that the America Prospect's Ezra Klein started in 2007, has made its way into the wide world, courtesy of the irreverant Mickey Kaus. The list has drawn conservative's ire since Politico reported its existence earlier this month. NRO's Mark Hemingway threw a fit and fell in it, asking "if the list isn't "pushing an agenda," why are there no conservatives participating?" Dave Weigel, the Washington Independent's conservative expert (which is kind of like a red panda expert, except that conservatives mate far more frequently) tssked his widget at gloating republicans, and by extension, the leaker! So what the hell happens on the JournoList? Kaus and the poor soul who traded in his harp for a Kaus-brand hurdy gurdy have the answer: The list is where TNR's Jonathan Chait, free spirit Eric Alterman, and the Nation's Chris Hayes go to e-hug their shit out. [Ed note: Gawker and Wonkette beat me to this. FUCK!] Lying lawmakers, abortion, and the death of Culture 11 after the jump.
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You’re Not Actually Undecided!
UDecide2008.com, a site dedicated to informing blog-illiterate swing voters, claims "ONE IN 14 AMERICANS IS STILL UNDECIDED." There's a kind of excitement to being "undecided." It makes voters feel valuable; casting a ballot will be the ultimate expression of democratic decision-making, since this cohort of voters ostensibly won't vote blindly down party lines. The media describes this group of unsettled citizens as election deciders. But how many voters are genuinely undecided, and how many are just coy assholes? Ezra Klein's Op-ed in the Los Angeles Times argues that the idea of an undecided voter is largely a farce:
"It's a bit odd that we give the Undecided Voter such a privileged place in American elections. Because from a civic standpoint, few creatures are as contemptible. ... Many of those who claim to be undecided are not. Some don't want to admit their preference."
The media seems to think the opposite is true.
Science did a study a few months ago that examined the psychology of a undecided voter. They found that:
"People who think they are undecided about an issue often have made up their mind at an unconscious level ... " "It's not that people are lying to the pollsters," social psychologist Bertram Gawronskitells said. "It's that they may not consciously recognize the automatic associations that influence their decisions."
I think saying you're "undecided" sounds somehow more sophisticated and thoughtful, but, most of the time, it's not true. So stop pretending like you don't know who you're voting for, "undecided" voters. Because, whether you admit it or not, you know exactly who you're voting for.





