Not So Quick, Silver

FiveThirtyEight calls itself "politics done right." When it sticks to analyzing polls, it does a good job. But when host Nate Silver starts editorializing, we get the same braindead stuff available at any other partisan site.

For instance, his take on David Brooks analogizing the Iraq War and health care--that if we'd had a year-long debate on Iraq, and the public was strongly against the invasion and the Republicans lost some big elections because of it, you'd at least advise Bush to think a second time.

It's easy enough to take apart these analogies, as different political issues rarely line up the same way. But Nate's beef? That the analogy doesn't work because in Iraq, Republicans told outrageous lies while Democrats told the truth. But for health care, Republicans told outrageous lies while Democrats told the truth.

Nate, we know you're a proud liberal. But that doesn't meant everyone who disagrees with you is lying.