Some of the day’s best reads:
- David Leonhardt explains the jobs numbers: “My guess is that recovery has indeed lost some steam in the last couple of months.”
- Theda Skocpol on progressives and health reform: “President Obama is finally leading. The rest of us need to follow.”
- The Quick and the Ed on Race to the Top: “Fifteen states and Washington DC made it to the finals of the first round of the Race to the Top…”
- Ezra Klein interviews Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO): “The polarization that exists on the floor of the Senate does not reflect the American people.”
- Shadi Hamid and Steven Brooke on democracy promotion in the Middle East: “Promoting democratic reform, this time not just with rhetoric but with action, should be given higher priority in the current administration, even though early indications suggest the opposite may be happening. Despite all its bad press, democracy promotion remains, in the long run, the most effective way to undermine terrorism and political violence in the Middle East.”
