For those of you who were too distracted by the surprise early-handover-of-sovereignty-in-Iraq decision to notice, Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” came out this weekend — and bloggers’ reactions are predictably mixed.
Atrios liked it. (Sample quote: “It’s good. Go see it.”) Andrew Sullivan didn’t. (Sample Quote: “No one told me I’d be bored. The devices were so tired, the analysis worthy of something by an intern in the Nation online.”) We report, you decide.
Speaking of Andrew Sullivan, he also asks, “Isn’t it telling that the Bush administration wants McCain, Arnold, and Giuliani as prime-timers for the convention? They’re the three Republicans least in sync with the Bush administration … A more representative selection would be: Santorum, Delay, Ashcroft.” True, but where has Sullivan been? It seems to us that it’s the notion that the conventions are designed to accurately convey the parties’ political views — rather than to present the most attractive public images — that is the one that is naive. So naive, to steal a phrase, as to be “worthy of something by an intern in the Nation online.”
Meanwhile, Ruy Texeira, guest-blogging on TalkingPointsMemo.com, sets out to debunk a recent Fox News poll which showed President Bush leading John Kerry by 6 points — contradicting most recent major polls, which have given Kerry a narrow lead. Texeira suggests that the folks at Fox might be getting results that favor Bush because they weight their data by party affilation: “Under this procedure, if you’ve got, in your view, too many Democrats … you simply weight them down and weight the Republicans up so you get to the presumed proper distribution of party ID.” According to Texeira, “public polling organizations worth their salt eschew this practice.”
And Amy Sullivan has been inspired by a David Brooks column — and subsequent correction — to attempt some debunking of her own. She challenges the C.W. that evangelical Christians vote overwhelmingly Republican: “In fact, some research I’ve been working on shows that evangelicals are sometimes more — not less — liberal on social policy issues.” Concludes Sullivan: “Evangelical votes are not locked in. And they never have been.”
Over at National Review‘s The Corner, Jonah Goldberg wants to share an email he received from a reader:
Last week Slate ran an “explainer” detailing the compelling legal reasons for the the [sic] unsealing of Jack Ryan’s divorce file. As I recall, John Kerry’s divorce from his first wife was also not “friendly” and the record of these proceedings is still under court seal. Question: When will the Chicago Tribune be petitioning the Massachusetts court for release of the Kerry file?
Good point! What was John Kerry doing with his first wife when Ryan was dragging his own off to all those “avant-garde night clubs” that got him in hot water? If Goldberg finds that “an interesting question” — and he says he does — we have a tip for him: some of those supermarket tabloids fond of flying saucers that kidnap presidential candidates and replace them with Martians are still hiring.
–Zachary Roth
Zachary Roth is a contributing editor to The Washington Monthly. He also has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Talking Points Memo, among other outlets.