A week from tomorrow I’ll be voting in the New Hampshire primary. But I’m a Democrat and the interesting primary is in the other party, so should I vote as a Republican?
I’ve done it before. In 2000, I crossed over to vote for McCain against Bush, even though I wouldn’t have voted for McCain against Gore. But I didn’t do it to benefit Gore. I just thought McCain would be a much better president than Bush.
That’s my ethic for strategic voting, and I recommend it to Democrats in the later-voting states: Don’t try to screw up the Republicans, vote to improve the field for November. Yes, it would probably improve Obama’s chances for re-election if, say, Bachmann won the Republican nomination. But that can backfire: How would you feel if some October scandal made Obama un-electable and you had to live with President Bachmann for the next four years?
Right now, Intrade says Romney is a prohibitive favorite to win the nomination. Would somebody else on the Republican side be a much better president than Romney? Probably not. So I’ve let the deadline for changing my registration pass. With reservations that I’ve outlined here and here, I’ll vote for Obama.
In a season dominated by the likes of MasterCard, WikiLeaks reminded us of what’s really priceless.
Creating the illusion of three dimensions on a flat TV screen is more than just providing different images to each eye, as current 3DTVs do. If you are your screen’s only viewer, if your 3D glasses also tell the system where you are in the room, and if the system has vast computing power, then it can do something called head tracking, which makes a huge difference, as seen here.
TPM explains why Romney doesn’t want to release his tax returns: He didn’t just make a lot more money than you, he did it without holding a job. That means he paid a much lower tax rate. (I say: “Eliminate the work penalty!“)
These two recent Paul Krugman columns are worth your time: Nobody Understands Debt and The Post-Truth Campaign.
It’s a little bitchy, but Salon’s annual Hack List is a guilty pleasure.
The Weekly Sift 