Les petites choses utiles du mardi, vol. 97

by Fr. on August 18th, 2009

Avec une pensée pour Didier Fassin, qui succède à Clifford Geertz à Princeton ; excellent entretien chez Sylvain Bourmeau.

Jonathan Bernstein, advertised by Henry Farrell as an insightful read on American politics, is absolutely brilliant at what he does. Yesterday’s favourite extract:

… the president doesn’t, and can’t, control everything. Take for example the current round of protests at Congressional town hall meetings. Are those the result of Obama’s failure to “find his voice” on health care? Not at all. Regardless of Obama’s actions, some 10-15% of the electorate is going to oppose him. That was true back in April when the Tea Party activists were dismissed as a hopeless fringe, and it’s true now. The dissent hasn’t changed; what’s changed is that the press corps, reading polls that show the president’s approval ratings sagging a bit and seeing legislation moving slowly on the Hill, are ready to interpret the same signal (sharp protest from one group of Obama opponents) totally differently. Then, they were the lunatic fringe; now, they’re an effect of Obama’s failure.

A reference by Henry is usually indicative of top quality: Jonathan Bernstein’s blog is precisely that.
Hm. Le reste de la liste semble avoir disparu dans un grand moment de cafouillage technique. Ce sera un volume très court.

Récemment