Our colleague and columnist Michael Barone is back to rewriting the Bible—er, the bible of politics that is. As the chief author of The Almanac of American Politics, Barone updates after every federal election. But with the Democrats taking control of the House and Senate and with about 30 new faces in Congress, this looks to be a pretty big job. So what are Barone's git'r done secrets? First, he figures what to expand or cut. "Obviously," he says, "I'm not going to use a lot of the material on House Speaker Denny Hastert that was in the previous Almanac." Next, he gets detailed voting info. "I find that close examination of the election returns tells me a lot that most observers miss." To make sure he's balanced, Barone shuns labels. "I have tried to avoid using the word reform in describing any proposal, since it can be taken as showing approval for it." Now he has to redo the introduction, which famously declared America a 49 percent-to-49 percent nation. His new view: The country is still divided. "The political future," quoth the sage, "is very much up for grabs. Both parties have the possibility of getting enough support to go above the 51 percent ceilings." And that could happen, he adds, if a presidential candidate liked by both sides emerges in 2008.
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