Author Archive | David Bernstein

The polls posted on RCP today show Obama ahead by 5, 5, 8, 5, 3 and 3 (plus the odd Gallup “expanded” poll, showing 10). So let’s say the median is 5, which is closer than other recent polls. And except for the Gallup expanded, the most Obama gets in any of the polls is […]

As Orin points out below, Drudge is highlighting excerpts of a 2001 interview Barack Obama did with Chicago public radio, in which he advocated “redistributive change.” The context was a discussion of the Supreme Court and constitutional law. Before getting to the controversy, the whole interview is worth listening to for another reason: Obama gives […]

Photo credit: Michael Abramowicz.

This is one of the most tendentious interviews of a political candidate I have ever seen. Despite his reputation as a gaffe-prone blowhard, I think Biden handled the questions, and the questioner, very well.

For months, there has been a constant stream of claims that unlike their hip, Progressive grandchildren, many elderly Jews would refuse to vote for Barack Obama because he’s black. Jon Stewart even did a segment on it, which was both funny and nasty. Not to mention Sarah Silverman’s “Great Schlep,” in which young progressive Jews […]

Courtesy of SupportBillAyers.org. See if you can fill in the blank. Bill Ayers didn’t “join a domestic terrorist group and participate in terrorist activities such as the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972,” he ___________________ (show) “participated passionately in the […]

“In both Roe and Heller,” Judge Wilkinson wrote, “the court claimed to find in the Constitution the authority to overrule the wishes of the people’s representatives. In both cases, the constitutional text did not clearly mandate the result, and the court had discretion to decide the case either way.” With all due respect to Judge […]

For some reason, and despite my obvious interest in conflicts between civil liberties and antidiscrimination laws, I haven’t gotten around to blogging about the recent pernicious attacks on freedom of expression in Canada, courtesy of provincial “human rights” commissions. So here are a few thoughts on how the situation in Canada is relevant to the […]

Over at The Faculty Lounge blog, Al Brophy notes that William and Mary has instituted a hiring freeze. Brophy continues: I’m expecting freezes on hiring at many universities. I asked a friend at a major law school a few weeks back what he thought the effect of the economy would be on law school hiring. […]

He’s certainly the favorite, but I think it’s odd that so many commentators seem to think the race is over. In 2000, with the same number of days to go in the presidential contest, four polls were published, giving George Bush a 4.5% lead over Al Gore. As we know, Gore wound up winning the […]

I’ve been blogging about the crazy action in closed-end funds, mutual funds that sell on the exchanges and have a fixed number of shares. Because the funds are thinly traded and held mostly by individual investors, they can sell at large discounts or premiums to their underlying net asset value, depending on investors’ optimism or […]

For whatever it’s limited worth, I thought McCain had a few opportunities to do some real damage tonight, and basically blew it. For example, on the Ayers issue, if McCain was going to use it at all, once Obama acknowledged that he and Ayers served on a foundation board together, McCain could have come back […]

N.Y. Times: Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. outlined the plan on Monday to nine of the nation’s leading bankers at an afternoon meeting, officials said, in which he essentially told the participants that they would have to accept government investment for the good of the American financial system. This capital injection plan will use […]

I posted a few days ago about the crazy action in closed-end mutual funds. At the end of the week, the action got even crazier. As of market close on Friday, the median closed-end fund was selling at slightly under a 30% discount to net asset value. In other words, investors could buy $100 worth […]