Edward Champion's Return of the Reluctant

Slate: "None of these palliatives apply to the Atlantic Monthly's 'State of the Union' package, produced for the January-February issue 'in partnership with the New America Foundation' for the second year in a row. This 33,000-word barge grinds bottom for 40 pages, unimpeded by wit, verve, originality, or any of the other attributes we associate with successful political rhetoric or good magazine journalism. If you can imagine a dozen 750-word New York Times op-ed pieces, each bloated by a factor of three or four or five, suffused with the earnestness of a parson, and constructed with the flattest language available, then you've still not comprehended the pomposity of this special section." (via the Muse)