SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

THE JUDGE AND THE SENATOR – FROM POWERLINE:  A new poll of the West Virginia Senate race suggests that Sen. Joe Manchin is a shoe-in for reelection if he votes to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, but faces an extremely close race if he votes against confirmation. According to the survey, taken by the Trafalgar Group, West Virginia voters favor Manchin over Republican Patrick Morrisey by 29 points if Manchin votes for confirmation but by only two points if he votes the other way. The two point spread is within the poll’s margin of error.  Several other Democratic senators are in the same position, which makes me guardedly optimistic that Judge Kavanaugh will pick up some Democratic votes when the Senate votes on his confirmation.

IMPATIENT DOCS – FROM STUDYFINDS:   Ever feel like your doctor is in a rush to get you out the door when you come in for a visit? You’re not just imagining things. A new study finds physicians gives a patient an average of just 11 seconds to describe their issue before cutting them off.  Researchers from the University of Florida determined that for all the waiting we do after we arrive at a medical practitioner’s office, its the doctors who seem to have the least amount of patience. The study showed that just a third of physicians give patients adequate time to explain why they’re there.  Eleven seconds?  Not to worry.  That's eight seconds longer than it took Hillary Clinton to write her entire presidential election platform.

UNIQUE – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Alumni from the University of Wisconsin are engaging in a unique public relations tour to bolster the school’s image, driving around the state in an ice cream van in the hopes of educating people about the university’s merits.  The #GetTheScoop tour “is traveling to local events throughout the state to challenge common accessibility and affordability assumptions about UW Madison,” Inside Higher Ed reports.  The dessert-based tour was necessary, the alumni believed, because the University of Wisconsin has “earned a reputation among some Wisconsinites for being expensive, liberal and hard to get into.” That’s a myth, say the alumni—and one that they’re hoping to “bust.”  The alumni “generally have it set up where the truck is scooping out ice cream, and next to the truck we have a tent set up, and that’s where we do our myth busting,” Tod Pritchard, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Alumni Organization, told Higher Ed.  It is understood, of course, that the ice cream being scooped out represents diversity of flavor traditions and respects the flavor choices of marginalized peoples.

July 21, 2018