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"A lunchtime's worth of political procrastination from GQ's editors.\n\nThe Most-Closely-Watched Race of Little Consequence The whole pundit class can't stop talking about tomorrow's special election in upstate NY, where an insurgent Conservative candidate\u2014backed by far-right national politicians\u2014has bumped a moderate GOP candidate out of the race. The outcome is supposed to be an indicator of things to come in next year's midterm elections, but no one can quite agree on exactly what it'll indicate. Nate Silver runs some of the numbers and summarizes a few theories of what the race means over at 538. Bold, armchair prediction from our admittedly distant vantage: Double-digit win for Hoffman, the conservative candidate. Less bold statement about the entire hoopla surrounding the race: Special elections like this one are too much of an anomaly to say much about next November.\n\nMore Reasons to Hate On Goldman McClathy continues its excellent reporting on the backstory of the financial crisis with two pieces by Greg Gordon. (They're here and here.) Read them and ask yourself: Was GS just wisely jumping off the economic bus before it went over the cliff or deliberately making suckers of pension funds, taxpayers, and homeowners? Either way, seems like the Goldman Sachs PR team has more work to do. (Hat tip to Calculated Risk for linking).\n\nJon Krakauer's Latest Crusade If there's one word to describe Everest-summiting journalist Jon Krakauer, it's dogged. After the publication of his last book, Under the Banner of Heaven, he initiated a public crusade against its villain\u2014the polygamist leader Warren Jeffs\u2014and it's not a stretch to say that his efforts helped contribute to Jeffs' arrested in 2006. Krakauer's newest target is Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who Krakauer alleges has failed to acknowledge his role in the Bush Administration's cover-up of former-NFL-player-turned-Army-Ranger Pat Tilman's friendly fire death in Afghanistan. A cynic might argue that Krakauer is just promoting his latest book, but even if that's the case, there's little doubt that he won't give up on calling for a statement from McChrystal until he gets one. And if Krakauer keeps up the full-court media assault, it's worth asking: Could McChrystal's standing be compromised at a critical moment in the debate over troop levels for Afghanistan?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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