Some of the day’s best reads:
- Ron Brownstein on health reform and white Americans: “[D]espite a Gallup Poll showing a post-passage bump in support for the health care bill, skepticism that government will ever deliver for them is bred in the bone for many white voters, especially those in the working class.”
- Michael Mandel on why this month’s personal income report contains bad news: “The private sector shows no sign yet organically generating growth. That is to say, the real personal income generated by jobs and private businesses and investments is falling, once we omit the effect of government transfer payments, such as unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”
- Andy Rotherham on the first round of Race to the Top awards: “So the Dep’t of Ed is confirming that DE and TN are the two Round 1 winners for RTT. Quick reax: Both states had good applications but also some areas of concern, still both are defensible choices.”
- Thomas Friedman on the U.S. and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: “The issue that should make peacemaking a necessity rather than a hobby for both the U.S. and Israel is confronting a nuclear Iran. Unfortunately, Israel sees the question of preventing Iran from going nuclear as overriding and separate from the Palestinian issue, while the U.S. sees them as integrated.”
- A neat video from the Harry Ransom Center at UT-Austin: a 1958 interview of Reinhold Neibuhr by a young Mike Wallace. (h/t Andrew Sullivan)
