Random Bits

Because I can't totally think straight in between checks for poll numbers and early exits (which you shouldn't pay any attention to), here's some stuff I'm reading, in convenient bullet-point form:

• Conservative hero John Shadegg is paying felons and sex offenders to do his GOTV work.

• Great article by Paul Waldman on Why We Vote. And you can match it up with this older story, also from The American Prospect, from Scott Lemieux about why federal elections should be under federal control. The "irrationality" of voting when one person can't make much of a difference is magnified when you're in a safe state with virtually no electoral activity. Those who hate the National Popular Vote idea say that it would change the rules so candidates would only campaign in a few big cities, but that's just patently false. It's too expensive to do that. What it would do is force a national strategy of local get-out-the-vote activities, where neighbors meet neighbors, and civic engagement is enhanced, and the country is better for the exchange. Furthermore, we have to do something about these different states with different standards, voting on a Tuesday for no discernible or defensible reason, etc.

• Newt Gingrich is an idiot who doesn't understand the free market at all. Pricing carbon emissions would necessarily get those energy producers to find smarter and more efficient ways to create and deliver energy. And that wouldn't be a tax, but (finally) the recognition of the serious externalities of carbon.

OK, now off to biting fingernails...

This Retirement Seems Bigger

I know that there are a ton of open seats in the House on the Republican side (30, at last count), but John Shadegg's case seems very significant to me. He ran for Majority Leader just TWO YEARS AGO. He was considered a reformer and a rising star in Republican circles. If he's not willing to stick around until the terrain becomes more favorable, there's something really wrong with the GOP.