Just as we all suspected

To CNN, politics is just another spectator sport.

Years ago, Doonesbury had a series of strips making fun of the way that supposedly respectable media outfits treated politics as merely a variant of professional sports. (“This is Roland Hedley, ABC Wide World of News.”) Mostly, they manage to pretend otherwise. But on Sunday, on one of the morning talk shows, Wolf Blitzer put in a plug for today’s YouTube Democratic debate. “Lou Dobbs,” he said, “will be handling the pre-game show.”

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com