[Posted by Karl]

In a surprise to almost no one, the results of the near-meaningless beauty contest are:

Bachmann 29% Paul 28% Pawlenty 14% Santorum 10% Cain. 9% Perry (write-in) 5% Romney 3% Gingrich 2% Huntsman 0% McCotter 0%.

Raw numbers:

Bachmann 4823, Paul 4671, Pawlenty 2293, Santorum 1657, Cain 1456, Perry (write-in) 718, Romney 567, Gingrich 385, Huntsman 69, McCotter 35.

As TV’s Andy Levy put it: “Congratulations to President Bachmann and Vice President Paul!”

As Eyeblast TV’s Stephen Gutowski put it: “I think the news today is that Ron Paul didn’t win a meaningless poll. Has that ever happened before?”

As HotAir’s Ed Morrissey put it: “You know what this media center is missing? A deep-fried wedge of butter.”

–Karl

[Posted by Karl]

Via James Taranto, a rather startling admission buried in a piece by TNR’s Jonathan Chait.  After listening to NPR’s Diane Rehm, reading news analysis from The New York Times and a column by the NYT’s Tom Friedman, Chait concludes that “our political discourse is consumed by magical thinking” about the Great Recession and the debt bomb:

Conservative pundits, while usually slanting their account in highly partisan and often misleading terms, do a fairly good job of grasping and explaining the fact that the two parties fundamentally disagree on the causes of and solutions to the economic crisis and the long-term deficit. In this sense, a Rush Limbaugh listener may well be better informed about the causes of the impasse than listener of NPR or other mainstream organs. The former will have in his mind a wildly slanted version of the basic political landscape, while the latter’s head will be filled with magical thinking.

That is progress for Chait, who wrote on April 14, 2010:

[I]f you believe the mainstream media is an organ of the progressive movement and the functional liberal equivalent of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, then yes, liberals do have epistemic closure. I think that,whatever you think about the liberal bias charge, the mainstream media is far more receptive to news and viewpoints that challenge liberalism than conservative outlets are to news and viewpoints that challenge conservatism.

Chait was demonstrably wrong then, but I salute Chait on his epiphany and hope he continues to examine the Magical Thinking of Liberals.  (more…)