Recent Political Notes

David Bromwich,"The Co-President at Work," NYRB, 20 November, reviews Jane Mayer's The Dark Side: The Inside Story on How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, Barton Gellman's Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, Ron Suskind's The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, Charlie Savage's Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy, Scott McClellan's What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, Jacob Weisberg's The Bush Tragedy, Stephen F. Hayes's Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President, and Bob Woodward's The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006–2008.

Andrew Gelman's"Election 2008: what really happened," red state/blue state/rich state/poor state, 5 November, charts the data of recent electoral shifts; and should be read in conjunction with the map featured by Eric Rauchway and Matt Yglesias. In 21 months of campaigning, did Obama so much as make an appearance in West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, or Oklahoma? That's how you make absolutely clear that you want to be their President, too.

Rob MacDougall,"American for a Day," Cliopatria, 6 November, is a must read, if you haven't had the pleasure. Edward Blum,"Neither Christ Nor Antichrist: A Reflection on the Election of Barack Obama," religion dispatches, 6 November, is a sober – John Turner says"a Niebuhrian" – reflection on Obama's election.