by Jacob T. Levy

I haven't had time for much blogging about the election--the first U.S. midterm election I've ever observed from out of the country, though thanks to the Web I'm not sure how much difference it makes. But I want to endorse Michael Crowley's post over at The Plank about Dan Maffei. I knew Dan--not well, as he was two or three years ahead of me--at Brown; we were both on the news staff of the university radio station. Even back then he was very unusually calm, mature, and able to command respect. By all accounts he's just kept building on those strengths, and Michael's post tends to bear that out. I don't much like what I gather are Dan's conventional Rust Belt Democratic political views--but, like everyone else I know from those days at Brown with whom I've discussed it, I'm pulling for a decent, thoughtful serious guy to get elected.