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The first annual Slate News Junkie Smackdown podcast.

Tim Egan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:16:38 EST

After two days trading opinions, impressions, and mild criticisms online, Slate's team of news-consuming guinea pigs tries to hash things out in the recording studio. Tim Egan, Michael Kinsley, Michael Newman, Seth Stevenson, Sam How Verhovek, and Emily Yoffe talk about the difference between news on the Web and news in a newspaper.

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Undivided government won't be as bad as McCain warned it would be.

Michael Kinsley — Tue, 4 Nov 2008 21:31:26 EST

John McCain's last, desperate argument to the voters was the danger of undivided government. Give the Democrats the White House, both houses of Congress, maybe even a flibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and they will be unstoppable. And then God knows what they'll do.

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The numbers don't lie: Democrats are better for the economy than Republicans.

Michael Kinsley — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:49:59 EST

If you're wondering why a formerly honorable man like John McCain would build his presidential campaign around issues that are simultaneously beside-the-point, trivial, and dishonest (sex education for kindergartners, lipstick on pigs), the numbers presented here may help to solve that mystery. Since the conventions ended, McCain has mired the presidential race in dishonest trivia because he doesn't want it to focus on what voters say is the most important issue this year: the economy.

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How Sarah Palin made the GOP change its mind about presidential qualifications.

Michael Kinsley — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:36:00 EST

In a famous example of ideological flexibility, the American Communist Party changed its mind completely about Adolf Hitler in 1939, when he signed a deal with Stalin. Previously, they hadn't cared for him much. Suddenly, he looked pretty good. Then two years later, when Hitler ratted on the deal and invaded the Soviet Union, the Communists changed their minds again. Both times, it took only days.

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Al Franken's campaign quandary: how to explain away his bad jokes.

Michael Kinsley — Mon, 7 Jul 2008 11:56:28 EST

Americans say they want to be represented by "real people" and not by "professional politicians." But with their votes, they reward professionalism and drain the reality from politics. Real people haven't spent their lives plotting a political career, and therefore real people may have said things from time to time that an aspiring politician would not. Departures from the official script are called gaffes. This election year, the script has been more important than ever. Despite the Iraq war, despite the sinking economy, despite the price of gasoline, we have frittered away our politics in a round robin of gaffes, mock indignation, demands for apology, and more gaffes.

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