Isn’t it refreshing when ideologues and partisans, discussing a particular political event, actually end up offering insight into that event that isn’t completely predictable and therefore generally worthless?

Yes, it is.

But we news consumers rarely enjoy such refreshment from the media—or from those who, because they’re on TV a lot, fancy themselves media members. As evidenced, this time around, by this gem of an entry posted last night to The Arena, “Politico’s daily debate with policy makers and opinion shapers”:

Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform:

Bottom line: McCain wants to cut taxes and reduce spending. Obama cannot say no to any of the left’s interest groups. McCain is Reagan. Obama is Kerry/Gore/Dukakis. America has faced this choice before.

Riveting. We can hardly wait to read The Arena’s next big opinion-shaper-shaped revelation: Howard Dean’s nuanced, fascinating, and not-at-all-predictable thirty-word analysis of who won last night’s debate and why that winner is Kennedyesque.

Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.