George W. Bush on This Week

Bush appeared on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday. I just listened to it and I wanted to note my reaction. I think he's got good intentions, and he should appear more often on unscripted events like this where he actually takes real questions and gives real answers. Of course his answers reveal a world view that gravely lacks nuance and knowledge. But like most people he is not an evil man. I agree with those who say that he's a good guy who is simply in over his head.

A good critique of Andrew Sullivan's The Conservative Soul

By Geoff Arnold:

The great social and political leaps of imagination and courage did not spring from conservatism, and it’s silly to pretend otherwise. Yet in Sullivan’s world view, liberalism is squeezed out: it’s either an economic aspect of conservatism (in the spirit of The Economist, perhaps), or a barely-restrained flavour of socialism.

Via Andrew Sullivan's own blog on Time.com.

Voters decide For Life when they're 20?

Kevin Drum shows a chart that suggests voter party allegiance is decided when they turn 20, based on whether the current president is popular or not. So, people who turned 20 when Reagan was president are likely to be Republican, whereas people who turner 20 when Clinton or Bush Jr. were presidents are likely to be Democrats.

On some level I guess this is good news, in that it proves the existence of SOME sort of a feedback loop (i.e. bad politicians/parties will be punished). It's just a shame that it may take generations for the feedback to show up in election results (as the 2004 elections showed - it didn't matter how much Bush Jr. screwed up, we still have to wait for those Reagan-era youngsters to be replaced because they're not going to change their minds).