Simon – I see where you might be confused. I meant principled conservative not consistent lackey for the GOP.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, you’re not going to, so I might as well put you out of your misery. You asked for someone who was principled but not predictable, but someone who is principled will be predictable, assuming you know their principles. That is why, for example, I can tell you which way Justice Scalia is coming out in 99 cases out of 100 just from reading the briefs: I know what his principles are, and so his response to given fact patterns is predictable. In other words, you ask the impossible. If you want unpredictable, you have to go to someone whose views are determined either entirely ad hoc on the basis of some external consideration (Josh Marshall, for example, who is only predictable to the extent one can determine which angle Marshall thinks will most help the Democratic party) or from a complex grab-bag of a balancing test between multiple and competing concerns (Ann Althouse, for example). You can have principled, or you can have unpredictable. You can’t have both, unless you don’t actually read what the principled person writes, which defeats the object of the exercise.

And try to see Alexandra’s documentary. Frightening especially when you see her trying to clean them up for presentation.

That’s exactly the point. I would bet NO one saw a black man winning a Presidential election in 2008 before Obama. (with perhaps the exception of Powell before he was neutered) In both cases though, it would have been a really exceptional accomplishment, which makes Simon’s pronouncements on landslides and such to be missing a whopper of a wild card.

(BTW- where the race card was played was on the Republican side if you saw Alexandra Pelosi’s documentary on the election)

LBJ bested Goldwater by 22%. Reagan beat Carter by 9% and Mondale by 18%.

In 2008, Obama had 52.9% of the vote and McCain had 45.7%. That’s 7.2%, exactly double what you cite. Also, Obama captured 365 electoral votes to McCain’s 173, a margin of more than 2 to 1.

It may not have been a landslide on the scale of Reagan and LBJ, but it was certainly a very decisive win.

And who is saying they don’t want to read Tully or Simon? I look forward to my daily dose of Tully and Simon.

This Sarah Palin persecution complex…not very pretty.

And all of this is small beans in relation to real landslides, Reagan in ‘84 had a 9% margin; JBJ had 11%. Those numbers are why no one would describe 1996 as a landslide, and no one can seriously claim 2008 was either.

How tedious is it that progressives must exaggerate its extent and conservatives must minimize it?

Landslides are the kinds of singular high tides that come only through the confluence of multiple cultural gravitational forces that add multiplier effects to things like having a well-spoken and charismatic candidate. For example, Obama might well have had an even more convincing victory if the election was 45 days later when the extent of our economic collapse was even more manifest. And it might have been much closer had the real estate bubble not popped until say december. But we’ll never know either way.

Last, concerning the landslide notion, Obama was the first Dem presidential candidate to get well over 50% of the vote since LBJ. Not only that, he bested McCain by 9 million votes. That’s as close to a landslide that a Dem candidate has ever seen. So while it may not be Reagan numbers, they’re still incredibly significant.

Why jump higher when we can lower the bar? ;) With respect, this just seems an obtuse way of looking at the numbers. The numbers prove that Democrats have done badly in Presidential elections since the 1960s and that Obama did well enough, not that he managed a landslide. LBJ got a landslide. Reagan got a landslide. Obama got an electorate muttering in its sleep to roll over. It was a good enough showing, a respectable margin, but by no means a landslide. The idea that he won by a landslide is just part of the mythos his defenders have constructed around him.

It is a partisan conceit on both wings that leaving out strong voices from the other side creates a “middle ground.” What it really creates is an echo chamber, a back-patting party.

As to the need for a voice of a certain stripe. I’d like to see a principled conservative voice … [n]ot someone who makes me say, how predictable.

*Chuckle* Think about that for a minute.

That formula was tried once–it was on CNN and it was called Crossfire. One short visit from John Stewert (the “you’re a dick” heard round the world episode)–and now no more Crossfire.

I love to read Simon and Tully and the like, but I prefer them in the comments section. I see Donklephant as a middle ground where people come to share, not a battleground which is what I fear might happen if we let some of the contributors “let their inner dick” out.

The “I’ll vote for a Republican every time type” are not very interesting based on the last eight years. (I’d like to see someone like my neighbor’s father who actually came to my door to apologize for voting for Bush.-Now that’s an American} Voting for McCain/Palin as a litmus test doesn’t make me respect your judgment, it makes me question whether you have any.

Blogs are a little like talk radio or cable TV shows: normal is boring, weird and different are fun and interesting. I’m not being facetious: I’m an interesting writer because I’m a unique voice. No one sounds quite like me. (No, I’m not volunteering, I’m writing two book series simultaneously and various Hollyweasels are chasing me.) And Simon is that way too. He’s a personality. And I’m sorry, but if you’re looking for eyeballs don’t go looking for normal, look for unique.

Same would apply to Tully who is a giant pain in my ass. They both have what pro writers — people who earn a paycheck putting words on paper — would call, a “voice.”

Tully is scary good when the facts are on his side. Simon is crazy, but crazy in an interesting way.

So my serious advice, Justin, not being facetious, is that you reach out to both. Because what Donklephant needs is a bit more crazy. I’d also reach out to Transplanted Lawyer. He’s center-right. For a leftish voice talk to Anjin-san and Interested Party both of whom comment at OutsidetheBeltway. And tell ASC to stop being so nice and grown up: I know he has an inner dick he could release.

It’s less about the politics than the voice. You’re in the entertainment business, Justin. You’re normal and so is Alan. I love what you guys bring. But I would come here every day to screw with Simon. Consensus is useless: education comes from the conflict of ideas, and that’s what I’m after.

So sign up the beasts and then turn them loose.