Wiretap: Robert Gates loves and/or hates Barack Obama

 
If you like to read about longreads, i.e., books, this is the day for you. We got two on tap. One is the Robert Gates autobiography, which either vivisects Barack Obama (according to Bob Woodward) or actually praises him (according to New York Times story). And then there’s a new bio on Roger Ailes, for those who enjoy reading about Fox News. There’s got to be someone.

Here’s the Woodward story on the Gates book. Via Washington Post.

And the Times story, in which the focus is that Obama lost faith in the Afghan strategy.

Gabriel Sherman’s book on Roger Ailes, the swaggering string-puller behind Fox News, is an unauthorized “literary Pearl Harbor,” according to the Daily Beast. The Fox team has declared war on the book based on leaks about the content. No one at Fox has read it yet.

Why are Republicans holding the long-term unemployed hostage? Via the New Yorker.

This is the guy most likely to run against Hillary Clinton in Dem primary. Money quote: “I do not trust politicians.” Via Slate.

Ross Douthat has his doubts about the upper-middle-class liberal populism. Via New York Times.

The poverty rate is all wrong. The Atlantic explains why in an article on what it says are lies, damn lies and outdated statistics.