But just because I quit The Atlantic doesn’t mean I’ve left DC.

At any rate, the argument that the administration has erred by not being more hardcore about the stimulus isn’t an argument about short-term politics. It’s an argument about the irrelevance of short-term politics. The administration will be judged in 2012 on the basis of its results. Unpopular 2009 actions that produce a strong recovery will be rewarded. Popular 2009 actions that prove insufficient to drive a strong recovery will be punished. “But the voters liked this approach 40 months ago” isn’t going to convince anyone.

UPDATE: Similarly, though Will Marshall makes some good points here he doesn’t address the question of substance. But the issue here isn’t simply that Paul Krugman wants to see more partisan red meat, it’s that there’s concern as to whether the Senate bill actually has enough job creating muscle to get the economy over the hump.

Yesterday I watched a fair amount of NBA coverage on TV, and sports pundits across the land seemed oddly fixated on the idea that Mo Williams deserved to be sent to the All-Star Game. The basic argument was that since Cleveland is doing so well, they “must” have two All-Stars on the team. It wasn’t entirely clear if they were making an epistemic argument in which the success of the Cavs demonstrated that it must be the case that Williams is having an All-Star season or if it was a causal case in which the Cavs’ success simply mandates that you must make Williams and All-Star irrespective of the quality of his play.

Either way, it doesn’t make much sense. Almost any way you slice the numbers you come to the conclusion that what’s happening in Cleveland is exactly what it looks like—LeBron James is a fantastic basketball player, and then there are 6-8 other guys there making contributions, none of them extraordinary and none of them wildly out of line with his teammates.

But beyond that, the focus on Williams seems myopic. Williams, it seems, is Cleveland’s second All-Star because he scores the second-most points. But everyone knows that there’s more to the game than scoring. And unlike your average overrated one-dimensional scorer, Williams isn’t even scoring that much. 17 points per game is nothing to sneer at, but it doesn’t exactly leap off the page and scream “All-Star season!” In terms of scoring efficiency Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, and LeBron James are all doing better (my stats are coming from here). Rebounding-wise, James, Ilgauskas, Varejao, and Ben Wallace are all contributing more in raw numbers, and Szczerbiak and Sasha Pavlovic contribute more on a per-minute basis.

A main idea behind the Williams-love seems to be that he’s new, and the Cavs have improved, so it must be all thanks to Williams. But the truth is that several Cleveland players are simply playing better than they did last year. LeBron is still on the upswing of his career, which should be no surprise given his age. Delonte West has dramatically increased his shooting efficiency and reduced his turnovers. And Ben Wallace’s rebound rate has edged back up from last year’s low point, and his shooting efficiency is the best it’s been since the 2005-2006 season.

If you’re interested in the subject of how the filibuster rule might be modified, check out this article from the March 17, 1975 issue of Time laying out the legislative work for the most recent update of the filibuster, reducing the supermajority requirement from 67 Senators to 60 Senators.