The Rundown

• Steven Stark at RCP argues that Obama and Edwards are their own worst enemies in the debate format. I don’t disagree.
• Former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta has some advice for the Bush Administration on how to avoid lame-duckery. I’d bet good money Podesta is wasting his time here.
• Don Rumsfeld actually resigned the day before the election. How about that.
• The Democrats really should make a point of passing the South Korea – US free trade pact. They won’t, but they should.
• Especially not if this is any indication. Please, Democrats, please stop doing this. I want to vote for you. I really do.

The Rundown

• Two big names have recently proposed reforming the farm subsidy system. One wants to retarget subsidies to family farms. The other wants to do away with subsidies altogether. The two people are John Stossel and John Edwards. Guess who proposed what.
• Could Superfund survive a cost-benefit analysis? Almost definitely not. I am not sure what we should do about it.
• Big media is out to screw the little guy. I know, that’s not really news, but on the other hand, it is.
• Fred Kaplan weighs in on the draft at Slate.
• Robert Samuelson calls for more clear-headed reporting on global warming, and makes the alarming and probably true assertion that we really don’t know how to solve this one. We probably shouldn’t do nothing though. Meanwhile, Matthew Yglesias critiques Michael Gerson’s global warming hand-wringing.

The Rundown

• Matthew Yglesias asks an important question — Would Rudy Giuliani Bomb Iran? (I’ll give you a hint: the answer is “yes.”)
• In other scary war news, there have been murmurs about the draft again in recent weeks. Steve Levitt of Freakonomics fame makes a pretty persuasive argument against. Fortunately, the Pentagon’s official line is still that the draft is off the table.
• Via Brad DeLong, Abu Aardvark points out that a Petraeus/Crocker report might, due to the nature of their respective positions, be somewhat schizophrenic.
• Jesus Christ, why does Chuck Schumer want anything to do with copyrighting fashion designs?
• The Democratic Strategist thinks election reform is a good idea. So do I. I’d like something even more radically than what the author would like, but anything is better than what we have now.

The Rundown

• Rove resigns. What can I say that hasn’t already been said?
• RCP has a lengthy Foreign Affairs essay/conversation on the role of the generals in the Iraq debacle.
• This fantastic NYT recap of the War in Afghanistan to date from Sunday New York Times is a must-read. It does not paint a pretty picture.
• Greg Mankiw summarizes a summary of a current study of the realities of the work/leisure trade-off in modern America. Good stuff.

The Rundown

• Fred Kaplan breaks down the parallels between the British withdrawal from India and a future US withdrawal from Iraq over at Slate.
• Peter Carlson pens a pretty entertaining farewell to the absurdist tabloid that was the Weekly World News.
• The quotes in this article from Idaho Rep. Bill Sali need to be read to be believed. Honestly.
• Atul Gawande has some words of wisdom on medical malpractice (via Overlawyered).
• Daniel Gross rips Rudy Giuliani’s health care plan to shreds. And rightly so. This thing is awful.

The Rundown

• More good writing on the Minnesota Bridge Disaster by Michael O’Hare.
• Via Crooked Timber, a good Boston Review article on the sociology of American prisons.
• Cal Thomas, with whom I rarely agree, makes a pretty good case that we should vote for competence over ideology next year.
• Bruce Bartlett, not exactly a tree-hugger, writes a guest entry over at Andrew Sullivan’s blog criticizing a less-than-accurate Drudge headline on global warming. A Drudge headline, shrill and wrong? Shocking, I know.
• In other poorly written news news, Matthew Yglesias is outraged at a NYT article which doesn’t bother rebut the Administration’s charges of Democratic tax shenanigans.
• Finally, Freakonomics hosts a high-profile discussion of street charity. Still hate the term “quorum” for these posts, though.

The Rundown

• Here is a pretty good, reasonable, level-headed analysis of the entire Scott Beauchamp controversy over at Slate.
• Speaking of level-headed analysis, here is Mark Kleiman on No Child Left Behind.
• Ruben Navarrette of the San Diego Union-Tribune defends Obama’s much-maligned foreign policy prescriptions. TPM’s Reed Hundt has more.
• Paul Sonne argues for Foreign Policy that the IOC should do a better job of selecting Olympic sites.
• Things continue to heat up between Russia and Georgia.

The Rundown

• Tyler Cowen presents a really interesting argument about the nature of poverty, based on a book by Charles Kareli.
• Foreign Policy’s Mike Boyer points to the fact that Grist (and other environmental organizations) tend to ignore conservative environmentalists.
• A pretty entertaining Freakonomics Q&A with Columbia sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh about gang life.
• Over at Salon, Juan Cole calls the latest surge of good news on the surge “a surge of phony spin.” Surge.
• Also at Salon, Glenn Greenwald interviews Chris Dodd. I have found myself increasingly impressed by Dodd. It’s a shame he’s such a long-shot.
• MD Governor Martin O’Malley and DLC Chair Harold Ford argue for Democratic centrism in the WP. Steve Benen is not impressed.

The Rundown

• Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff has an interesting piece on healthcare in the Guardian’s “Comment is Free” feature.
• The Tenth Circuit held that Oklahoma may not treat out of state adoptions by gay couples differently than it treats such adoptions by straight couples.
• Senior Senator of my home state Arlen Spector, has a pretty level-headed editorial about immigration in today’s WP. Unfortunately, he is probably not doing himself any favors in his next contest with this stance.
• A challenge to the NSA wiretap program may have a chance, since the Department of the Treasury accidentally gave the defendant’s lawyers a copy of the NSA Call Log. Oops.
• Stephen Bainbridge, guest-blogging for Andrew Sullivan, demonstrates that the similarities between the president and his father are greater than they would seem, and not in a particularly flattering sense.
• Matthew Yglesias conveys some foreign policy wisdom Obama dropped re: China at YearlyKos.

The Rundown

• The best piece I’ve seen on the I-35 Bridge Collapse. It’s just very well done.
• New poll shows a three-way split in Iowa between the big three Dems. Oh how I love a horserace.
• Mark Kleiman has a great anecdote about the ongoing problems in the credit market.
• Matthew Yglesias points to a good critique of the O’Hanlon/Pollack editorial. He also conveys some interesting Romney news.
• And finally, hell froze over as President Bush announced international climate change talks today.