Pundit Watch

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Monika Bauerlein,
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Good news! The Washington Post has picked the ten finalists in its “America’s Next Great Pundit” contest. I know you don’t have time to read them all, so I’ll summarize:

Richter: Bring back the Office of Technology Assessment.
Haber: Where I come from, five plus one equals eight. What’s more, Nevada will both lose and gain a congressional seat after the 2010 census.
Martin: These days, everybody wants it all. Also: my dad is driving my mother crazy.
Jackson: Barack Obama needs to stop whining. Bush 43 wasn’t so bad.
Gyamfi: Cable news is stupid.
Huffman: I want to be the next Dave Barry.
Esper: Healthcare is an important issue.
Khalil: Surprise! Arab-Americans watch Fox News.
Khan: Women like to yak, and Obama should capitalize on this.

I know what you’re thinking: this is only nine columnists. What’s the deal? Answer: there’s a tenth, but for some reason her column isn’t up yet. Not sure why.

By the way, the ten winners include a Nobel Prize winner, a Bush 43 assistant secretary of commerce (guess which one), a senior correspondent for the American Prospect, an analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, a former researcher at the Kennedy School of Government, an Atlantic Media fellow, and a small-town newspaper editor. Not exactly a crowd of just plain folks. It might have been more fun to read the other 4,790 entries.