MORE CAMPAIGN DISCOURSE: Oh look, it’s Ben Smith of the Politico and your editor doing one of these New York Magazine things. Smith says Wonkette’s commenters suck, and describes how Steve Schmidt put him in that tank! Your editor types more weird shit about Plato and Grand Moff Tarkin. [NY Mag Instant Politics]

• Liberals are mean, get slapped on collective wrist. [Blogs for Bush]

• “Instead of the donkey as a party mascot, the Democrats may want to consider a more exotic animal. Peter Beinart has a suggestion — the pander bear.” [Captain's Quarters]
• Fired-for-no-apparent-reason Gawker Editor Jesse Oxfeld hired as senior editor for New York magazine’s website. [Romenesko]
• “Sen. Hillary Clinton is looking for new ways to reach out to white working and middle class voters - especially those who live in exurbs and rural areas. According to several Democratic sources and others on the periphery of Clinton’s team, an old, press-shy face is part of her the inner circle: marketing whiz Roy Spence, a Clinton family confidant since the 1970s.” [Hotline On Call]
• The cool kids have a new way to talk about “the combination of slow growth and high inflation,” and that’s Stagflation. Just rolls off the tongue. [Political Animal]

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The unthinkable destruction of Katrina continues to astonish all . . . except for New York magazine “It Happened This Week” columnist Jim Holt, who has done the world the dubious service of hitting what’s known as the Gopnik mark, ie., reducing horrible human tragedy to the stuff of tedious, nay, juvenile, pseudocosmopolitan self-infatuation: MORE »