I was about equally annoyed and impressed with Kerry’s elaborate head-fake toward Gephardt. He did manage to milk some surprise out of what would otherwise have been the obvious choice. Not necessarily the best choice: I would have preferred a Southerner with some gray hair and some national-security creditials: Clark, Graham, or Nunn.
Still, the choice of the obviously smart and charismatic Edwards over the obviously dull and shopworn Gephardt says good things about Kerry. First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.
Update A reader argues, pretty convincingly, that Edwards was probably the best choice after all.
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
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