Second paragraph of third chapter:Craig's biggest fear, however, was also probably the most realistic, and that was fire. House fires were a regular occurrence in Chicago, in part due to slumlords who let their buildings slide into disrepair and were all too happy to reap the insurance benefits when a fire tore through, and in part because home ( Read more... )

This is a brilliant account of the 2008 US presidential election, concentrating particularly on the Obama/Clinton dynamic (since that turned out to be much more important and durable than the Obama/McCain dynamic). The authors claim to have got detailed accounts from campaign insiders of key conversations and exchanges right up to the level of the ( Read more... )

The excellent Strange Maps produced a fascinating overlay of Obama votes in this month's presidential election compared with cotton production in 1860. Not surprisingly there is a huge correlation: cotton in 1860 => slaves => black population now => Obama support.


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By glorious chance I happen to be in New York at the moment, and watched the results coming in with friends who live uptown. I got a cab back but ran into celebrating crowds when we reached 47th St, so paid it off and walked the rest of the way to the hotel (on 29th). An amazing atmosphere, and I'm so glad I was here (and bought the T-shirt ( Read more... )

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I just love this YouTube video featuring a (fictional) Obama campaign team singing "One Day More" from Les Miserables.

I'm a huge fan of both the book and the musical, but I picked this up from someone on my f-list who knew nothing of Les Miserables but still enjoyed it. The song is the closing number of the first act of the show, in which a) ( Read more... )

Actually the most interesting bit of psephological anorakery about this year's election so far is Crooked Timber's piece on the time zone biases of the candidates. The only Democratic candidate for either President or Vice-President who was living outside the Central or Eastern time zones (or at least the territory which now forms them) when ( Read more... )

The Sarah Palin nomination looks to me like a stroke of genius. She actually looks like a normal person; I can't remember the last candidate for either President or Vice-President who did. (Possibly Jimmy Carter.) There is a romantic streak in all of us that would like to see the outsider defeat the establishment, in any country, and the spirit of ( Read more... )

I do occasionally get funny correspondence about my web page on US Presidential elections and facial hair. But over the last 48 hours I have hit the bigtime: Andrew Sullivan, whose "The Daily Dish" is one of the top US political blogs, linked to it under the flattering title The Ultimate Dish link. Seeing as he is so widely read, I'm not surprised ( Read more... )

I've been musing a bit about Hillary Clinton's recent travails on the question of foreign policy. (The details are of interest only for the truly obsessed, but FactChecker has a good summary and I link below to the Washington Post take on each issue.) I can't speak to the Rwanda or China issues, but I do happen to know a bit about the other three ( Read more... )