Neotenization and the American Liberal.
Two from Duncan Black [scroll down for the second]

CNN is informing that Hillary Clinton has to do 15 things simultaneously with her speech, and wise Soledad finally remarked that some of these things may be contradictory.
Our discourse is so stupid.
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Back in 2004 the media were obsessed with the idea that if the Dems showed any negativity about Bush they'd be doooooooooooooooomed.
Now they're obsessed with the idea that the Dems aren't showing enough negativity.
Whatever.

I've said this too many times: "Serious" American liberals come from the ranks of those who've never understood why they didn't get laid in high school. They know this and are proud of it, wearing it as a badge of their own superiority. 'We were the smart ones."
Watching American politics at the national level is like watching a pick-up game between a crew of locals and prep-school boys who always end up whining about being fouled. Earnest and well-meaning sons of privilege angry and confused at the petty Darwinism of daily life; I'm All Right Jack, with John Kerry standing in for Ian Carmichael.
It's not that I have a particular fondness for determinism, it's just that nobody's come up with a better description of how the world works. Rationalism and wishing don't make it so.

"Our discourse is so stupid" Here as everywhere. But the inability to deal with that as a matter simply of getting things done is a peculiarly American stupidity. We're a nation of pedants, con-men and drunks.
"There are no grown-ups." And more importantly in an intellectual climate where sophistication is deemed sophistry even by the educated, no one who aspires to becoming one.