Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

Birch Bayh has been out of the Senate for 30 years, but people still remember him as a key architect of Title IX, a proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, and a crusader for sensible political reform like electoral college abolition. Thirty years from now, I think Bayh the Elder will still be remembered in that way. The feminist moment of the 1970s will be an important historical topic for decades, and Title IX and Birch Bayh will always be an important part of that story. Who’s going to remember Evan Bayh in 2040? What will he be remembered for? His die-hard commitment to the children of multi-millionaires?

Evan Bayh has decided to retire. He said he wants to spend more time scolding his family for moving too far to the left.

If the Dems get thrashed in November, it'll be because they failed to do enough to help the economy and generally do things for people. The lesson they'll learn is that Obama the socialist did too much and what the people care about is "deficits." Madness, yes.

Faithful readers will know that I have a soft spot for Joe the Plumber. Okay, so he is ignorant, gullible and churlish, but who among us, etc. etc. I even let it pass the other day when he said that John McCain had screwed up his life. Josh Marshall, by contrast, is scandalized, or at least rolls his eyes. I have no instinct to quarrel with Josh, but I can think of one reason why Ol' Joe is so upset. Namely: he senses--correctly, that John was making fun of him. Among his many virtues and defects, McCain is an old-fashioned wise-cracking, sissy-taunting, towel-snapping locker room bully ( believe me, I have reason to recognize the type). When he talked about Joe, his bumptious good fellowship was always tainted by that sneer of dominance that you would expect from the BMOC. Joe is divorced; he's broke; he's pushing middle age, and his prospects are zero (unless there is an MOS for "army candy at a political rally"). He feels the pain.