MyDD :: Where's the Punditry?

Where's the Punditry?

by NCDem, Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 11:58:10 AM EST

I realize that the site "MyDD" has morphed considerably into an "action-oriented" community since I've been reading it. But the first thing that EVER attracted me to a Blog (didn't know what a blog was) was when Jerome Armstrong performed armchair punditry ages ago... He had a GREAT database of all (or most?) congressional seats, with his predictions (safe, lean, tossup). In fact, that was pretty much the sole focus of the site... until it became Dean-oriented (and he left it abandoned for some time). Could I make a formal request that would likely appeal to many old-schoolers like me... and potentially attract a new and different audience... Could someone bring back a bit of the insta-punditry here on MyDD? Bowers used to do a version of this when he brought the site back out of oblivion... I would love a recreation of Jerome's old-school database with varying shades of blues, red, and sprinkles of yellow... It's just very difficult to find a great source for Congressional punditry to get jazzed about. This crew could do just as good a job as anyone else getting paid to do it...

Or is this just a bad idea?
Maybe so... Having a predictions-sheet (wherein some Democratic candidates must be predicted to lose) maybe could undermine the 50-state-strategy... where the very people advocating to "run everywhere" are predicting that we will lose...

Maybe the site has moved on...
alas...
'tis a good thing, I suppose.

Tags: congress (all tags)

Permalink :: 6 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: Where's the Punditry? (none / 0)

Seems to me that it's tough to be partisan ralliers and honest analysts at the same time. I can already imagine the flurry of "WTF, you left out my candidate" whining that would choke the comments. But given how spread out the general readership is geographically if not ideologically, might be possible to get reasonable and detached reaction.

The real question probably is whether the people writing this page are detached enough in the first place to be unbiased. Maybe now, but less and less as time goes by.

by Lucas O'Connor on Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 03:38:04 PM EST

Jerome was never unbiased (none / 0)

He thought he was... but then he disappointed the shit out of everyone (including likely himself) when his predictions were always wrong (and in the direction of the Democrats) when it came to the close races.

Maybe there could be an "independent elections analyst or two" that could do this, and then everyone (including site administrators) could rail at them... It could be a whole new idea of blogging... railing against your own front-page blog-posts.

Invest in nature

by NCDem on Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 03:50:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Jerome was never unbiased (none / 0)

Couldn't we just find right-wing armchair pundits and post at their site then?

by Lucas O'Connor on Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 04:30:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

actually... (none / 0)

I'm looking at the wikipedia site for the 2006 congressional elections, and it's pretty good.

Invest in nature

by NCDem on Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 04:42:14 PM EST

Re: Where's the Punditry? (none / 0)

Yes, i'm a sucker for congressional data. The more the merrier. I'd love to see more. Kudos for that wish. As for the rest ...

There are facts and there is opinion. Check out the barry Welsh site for a lot of data. benawu has done a fabulous job updating it to include the Presidential results for the CD. We have a lot of facts here.

The opinion, well, it has not been as "accurate" as some might have hoped but it is opinion. One of the issues with this site is that it has a very short history and a history that is in a mildly Republican era in terms of voting and a vehemently partisan Republican era in terms of results of governance (there, I gave you my opinion).

Since one world is sloped one way (mildly Democratic) and the other is sloped mildly Republican, we get dissonance.As a group we have followed a lot of close races. It seems that the list of "unexpected" losses or at least dashed hopes is considerable. Francine Busby. Ciro Rodriguez. Paul Hackett. Oddly, the wins have not been as close and have been in Governor's races like NJ and VA.

by David Kowalski on Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 05:11:53 PM EST

Re: Where's the Punditry? (none / 0)

The other option is to revitalize the ourcongress.org site, which isn't really used very much (last post was July 10th).

John McCain: Healthcare for Kids? In America? No way

by bosdcla14 on Fri Jul 14, 2006 at 09:46:48 PM EST

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