Jacob Weisberg

Of the alternatives we face in controlling long-term spending growth, moving Medicare to a voucher system seems only mildly unfortunate - and nothing as compared with a debt-driven economic crisis that could stem from inaction.

The tone of good web writing grows out of email. It's more direct, personal, colloquial, urgent, witty, efficient. It doesn't waste your time. It reflects that engagement, responsiveness, and haste of web surfers, as opposed to the more general passivity of print readers.

Within half an hour of posting a piece on 'Slate,' I get a direct, often hostile and personal, response from readers.

Where Reagan channeled disenchantment with overweening government, Obama symbolized America's transformation into a multiracial country.