Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

A consequence of cucumbers

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Not all heroes wear capes.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

You are here: Home / Books / They Have A Book to Sell Open Thread: “Luck Favors Only the Prepared Mind”

They Have A Book to Sell Open Thread: “Luck Favors Only the Prepared Mind”

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Louis Pasteur, as per the quip in the title, knew a thing or two about succeeding against the odds. Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes are media mudlarks; they make a living rooting through the sewage outflow of politics, looking for nuggets they can resell. Hey, it’s a living!

Lemieux quotes at length from Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozada’s review, “Joe Biden won the presidency by making the most of his lucky breaks”:

… Four years ago, Allen and Parnes co-authored the best-selling “Shattered,” an examination of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 campaign, in which they placed the blame largely on the ineptitude of the losing side. In this sequel, they are only slightly more generous with the Democratic nominee. Joe Biden won, of course, but mainly because he “caught every imaginable break.” He was the “process-of-elimination candidate,” emerging from a crowded set of more exciting Democratic contenders. He was “lousy in debates and lackluster on the trail,” prevailing despite “a bland message and a blank agenda.” Biden, they argue, got lucky.

The fiasco of the Iowa caucuses, where the app designed to report the results failed miserably, temporarily obscured Biden’s fourth-place showing. “This was a gift,” a campaign aide later explained. Luck returned when rival Democrats such as Pete Buttigieg (who ended up winning Iowa) and Mike Bloomberg (who won American Samoa) suffered debate night takedowns by Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren — and when Biden survived his own hit from Kamala Harris over his past positions on school busing and desegregation. (That almost cost Harris the subsequent veep nod, Allen and Parnes report.) Fortune smiled again when the entire Democratic Party establishment rushed to Biden’s side after his victory in the South Carolina primary, even if it was less about devotion to him than panic that Bernie Sanders might secure the nomination. “On Super Tuesday, you got very lucky,” President Donald Trump told Biden at their first debate. The Democrat did not disagree…

A simplistic focus on identity is evident throughout the Democratic field, with new aides often hired to make staffs look young and more diverse — only to complicate things by, you know, having ideas of their own that diverged from those of entrenched advisers. Allen and Parnes portray a Biden campaign split along “deep fault lines mostly based on generation, race, ideology, and time in Bidenworld.” Biden was in the middle of it, in every sense, hewing to centrist positions on health care, racial justice and law enforcement, no matter the pressures from his campaign team and his party. He may not have been “Sleepy Joe,” but he remained “Unwoke Joe,” Allen and Parnes quip. “That was the ugly truth many Democrats had to face in the aftermath of the 2020 election: To beat Trump, they had to swallow their progressive values and push forward an old white man who simply promised to restore calm.”

That “simply” is a little deceptive. The 2020 race transpired against the backdrop of a deadly pandemic, widespread racial-justice protests and threats to American democracy emanating from the presidency itself. In “Lucky,” such context matters largely to the extent that it affects the candidates’ rhetoric and fundraising. (George Floyd’s death, for instance, required some “nimble positioning” by Biden, Allen and Parnes write, trying to keep both moderate White voters and party activists happy.) As a result, the moments of high drama in “Lucky” can feel small-bore. Should Biden leave New Hampshire and head to South Carolina before the Granite State’s full primary results are announced, thus potentially alienating supporters there for the general election? (Spoiler: He did leave early. It was fine.) And how do longtime Biden campaign staffers react when the interloping new campaign boss, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, receives a glowing write-up in The Washington Post’s opinion section, complete with a portrait-type photo? “The profile landed like the mother of all bombs in the civil war between the Obama veterans and Biden’s primary crew,” Allen and Parnes overwrite…

“Lucky” provides useful detail to understand Biden’s victory, even if the framing is not particularly novel. What candidate has not experienced some luck or misfortune during a long presidential bid? One time it might be a major health crisis, another time, a self-righteous FBI director. Stuff happens, and the best candidates figure out how to react. “Knowing who he was, and where he wanted to be politically, allowed Biden’s campaign to capitalize when luck ran his way,” Allen and Parnes write in their final pages.

In other words, Biden was more than lucky. And for political reporters as for political candidates, spending too much time on optics is just not a good look.

Acid test of the Allen/Parnas theory, in what passes for the real world:

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  1. 1.

    Nicole

    Yeah, much as I love a bomb-throwing Democrat, I don’t think they pick up votes from anyone who wasn’t already a Democrat. More than one GOPer in my circle decided to vote for him, basically because he was nice and not a bomb-thrower and they were embarrassed about the orange bomb-thrower representing their party.

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    “That was the ugly truth many Democrats had to face in the aftermath of the 2020 election: To beat Trump, they had to swallow their progressive values and push forward an old white man who simply promised to restore calm.”

    What a load of bollocks, though large portions of twitter would probably still agree with it.

  3. 3.

    Mary G

    Can you add a closing quotation mark to the title? I try not to pedant, but sometimes my eyes start twitching.

  5. 5.

    Citizen Alan

    The sole point of agreement I have with the typical Trump voter lies in our shared belief that there are a lot of “journalists” who should be herded into chain-link pens and forced to cower in terror as an angry mob bays for their blood.

  6. 6.

    Eolirin

    Hm. You know, I think the way Biden isn’t a threat to conservatives really highlights how significant race and gender and to a lesser but still important extent, tone, are to their viewpoints. Biden is running to Obama’s left on policy, he’s making comments on labor unions that are actually historically unprecedented and radical. And silence. He’s not threatening.

    There’s an uncomfortable implication in there that we can get a lot more achieved policy wise if we only put genial old white men at the head of the party.

  7. 7.

    brantl

    Isn’t it funny how they ignore the big tent consultations that went on for the Democratic national platform, before the election?

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    and the news just got worse for Cuomo

    Ruch, now 33, recalled that Cuomo put his hand on the small of her back — which was exposed in an open-back dress — almost immediately after the two were introduced at a New York City wedding reception in September 2019. Ruch recalls that she “promptly removed his hand with my hand, which I would have thought was a clear enough indicator that I was not wanting him to touch me.” But when she did so, Cuomo said — loud enough for her friend to hear — that she was being “aggressive.” He then placed his hands on her cheeks, asking if he could kiss her. She pulled away as Cuomo came closer and kissed her on the cheek.

  9. 9.

    Nicole

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    What a load of bollocks, though large portions of twitter would probably still agree with it.

    I agree.  We weren’t swallowing any progressive values; if anything, we were having to deal with the unpleasant ongoing fact that we live in a deeply racist and misogynist society.

    That said, Trump, an old white guy, having to run against another old white guy, couldn’t ever get a handle on how to insult Biden, and that was kinda fun to watch.

  10. 10.

    Ken

    @Mary G: The quote mark is there, but what I’m seeing (Chrome, Windows) is a single quote rendered in white.  It might be being clipped.

  11. 11.

    Patricia Kayden

    I'm just not sure bipartisanship with the people moving heaven and earth to prevent Democrats from voting is important as stopping them from doing that.— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 1, 2021

  13. 13.

    artem1s

    Man they just can’t help themselves can they?  this book is the very definition of ‘beating a dead horse (race)”.

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mary G:

    I think it’s a FYWP glitch that, for some obscure and bizarre reason, refuses to allow closing quotation marks in post titles. Water Girl would know.

  16. 16.

    gwangung

    @Eolirin: Yes, exactly. I think that is still not internalized in progressive voters.

    Also not internalized by progressives: the personas of candidates often matter as much as the policy ideas. Maybe more. Biden is known as a moderate, yet a lot of the ideas he espouses are very progressive….and that is accepted by the centrists and moderates in this country. Indeed, I think they are accepted BECAUSE Biden is known as a moderate.

  22. 22.

    Mary G

    @Ken: My apologies, AL. Thanks Ken for explaining.
    @SiubhanDuinne: You too. I had never noticed it before. It’s kind of nice to have the psychological muscles rebuilt so I see stupid small stuff – it feels like the last four years were all devoted to “OMG, he did WHAT now?”

  27. 27.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro:

    Biden, running/governing on Warren’s platform

    Except, among other things, Medicare for All, the rock Warren aimed her ship straight at.

  30. 30.

    featheredsprite

    The Bltway never did recognize the work that went into Candidate Biden’s position papers. But we did.

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ruviana:
    All the more reason for the good guys not to do it. ​If you do like the bad guy, what makes you the good guy?

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I believe he talked about incorporating a public option during the campaign through the election, back before we were all distracted/delayed by a couple months of non-transfer-of-power, an insurrection, and a non-existent Covid response?  Everything else he’s done – including today’s very historical pro-union statement – is 99% in line with what she’s proposed/backs.

    What were the ‘other things’, btw?

  33. 33.

    Danielx

    @artem1s:

    There are people out there who will part with actual money to purchase this semi-journalistic swill, just as they will to purchase Maggie Hannity – er, Haberman! Haberman I mean! – whatever tripe she produces. You know how it is, if you sell your soul for  access, you need some value in return after all.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    @Eolirin:

    I’ve said for a long time that the media reacts much more to tone than content. Conservatives can get away with saying really radical, despicably evil stuff as long as they wear the right kind of suit and speak calmly and politely.  Meanwhile, getting visibly angry at the terrible stuff the conservatives are saying makes liberals uncivil.  Biden is testing to see if a liberal can get away with saying radically liberal things by wearing nice suits and speaking calmly and politely.  Hopefully, he can goad the conservatives into losing their cool and being rejected for their tone.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: I don’t have Warren’s platform in front of me, but she was just talking about her wealth tax on TRMS, and I don’t see Biden embracing it.

  40. 40.

    Nelle

    @Jeffro: When Warren was asked how she would feel if another candidate won and implemented what she was advocating, she didn’t miss a beat in exclaiming, “That would great!”  I so appreciated that from her.

  43. 43.

    Danielx

    @Roger Moore:

    Except they’ve been saying radical evil shit for a while, suits or not, and not spending much effort on civility either.

    So, you know, fuck those guys and leave civility to the civil.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:I don’t have Warren’s platform in front of me

    I know, I know…I was halfway yanking your chain, so to speak.  The Dem candidates’ platforms were about 95% the same anyway.  ;)

    On the wealth tax: I don’t think Biden was in favor of it back during the campaign but I’m not completely sure.  (I don’t remember him knocking over a debate podium to oppose it, either.)

    Liz introducing legislation today and talking about it tonight doesn’t exactly give President Biden a lot of time to respond but I’m sure it’ll be in the mix tomorrow and going forward.  Hard to see how it would hurt him – it’s another 60%+ winner with the public.

  47. 47.

    aliasofwestgate

    They make it sound like the average amount of dramatics with the backstage crews (and quite often casts) of high school plays. Which is pretty much stupid as hell, but it happens. But to use that framing for a presidential election team? Especially one relatively free of bullshit as Biden’s? Petty shit.

    There’s always drama behind the scenes in every ‘production’, but prolly not remotely as bad as this idiot was making it sound.

  49. 49.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Steve in the ATL: I don’t shoot Sony*, so I can’t say from experience.  Guy in the local photography FB group shoots birds an A9 ii and uses a Sony 200-600mm G lens and gets good photos.

    * I shoot with the latest Samsung APS-C camera, Samsung got out of the camera business 6 years ago.

  50. 50.

    randy khan

    Leave aside that none of these people are remotely as good at this as Theodore White (who never was as good later as he was in 1960, when he got very lucky with JFK).

    But, my lord, Biden won 15 million more votes than Clinton did in 2016, beat Trump by 7 million in the popular vote, and flipped 5 states from 2016.  It only looked like a squeaker because we have a strange way of deciding who wins Presidential elections.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Yup. FYWP*. We the hoi polloi fall on the losing side of the closure vote.

    *(Most likely some widget or other appended to vanilla FYWP.)

  52. 52.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Worthless Villager “Democrats in disarray” narrative, which they are too lazy to diverge from.  A meteor cannot hit the WaPo or the NYT or any of the networks (we’ll give Rachel and Lawrence emergency evacuations) a moment too soon.

  53. 53.

    James E Powell

    @schrodingers_cat:

    We get this dumb analysis because the media is overwhelmingly white and male and the base of the Democratic party is neither.

    That’s a big factor, but we also get this stupidity because journalists who do their jobs with intelligence and integrity don’t get the same book deals as the ones who say whatever gets them attention and invitations to appear on cable & Sunday shows to talk about their special super savvy insider bullshit.

  54. 54.

    Jay

    Over a hundred families have already been reunited by the Biden Administration and they're going to let more of them reunite here in America while giving them opportunities to stay.

    This is why elections have consequences.https://t.co/njq1cLqj7e— Grant Stern (@grantstern) March 2, 2021

  56. 56.

    James E Powell

    @Jay:

    I just saw the ACLU lawyer who filed the first suit on Rachel Maddow. He was almost in tears. There are good people, great people fighting for justice. Sometimes I lose sight of that.

  58. 58.

    Suzanne

    you have to consider that maybe what makes an effective campaign and what access journalists consider exciting are not the same

    To be fair, this is a really common fallacy. Most people with whom I discuss anything of importance show this bias, which is the bias of thinking that people make decisions and choices the same way you do. The people who are good at not being in that mindset are marketing research and analysis people, because they literally study how people make choices about buying things. It’s not surprising to me that some of the most innovative thinking I’ve seen about electrical politics this cycle has been from the marketing approach.

  61. 61.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Interesting thread on the possibilities for a stand-alone minimum wage, which includes phrase, “Graham is looking at a proposal from Waffle House

    Burgess Everett @burgessev
    Republicans like Graham, Capito and Collins said they’d look at going above $10. Graham is looking at a proposal from Waffle House to get to $15 over 6-7 years “It is a more durable solution if it’s 60 votes,” said D Sen. Coons, who is beginning to talk to Republicans

    Republicans “realize it’s got to be raised,” said Sen. King. “There are 3 principled pieces: The number, the phase-in and the tipped wage. Those are the three things we should work on. We ought to try and have some discussions. That’s the way you’re supposed to legislate.”

    also interesting, Manchin wants the MW to  be indexed from now on, which for all he’s a huge pain in the ass, is a good thing.

  62. 62.

    neldob

    @gwangung: i think Bidens ideas are moderate,  that they are supported by moderates. The old cheeto liar was radical. It is very helpful Biden is an old white guy because he doesn’t appear out of the ordinary presidential type.

  63. 63.

    gwangung

    @neldob: I’m going back to that a lot of the ideas in his plans were first championed by progressives. And progressive ideas championed by moderates are still progressives—which I think is the correct way to go.

  64. 64.

    Anya

    @Jay: This is wonderful. Thank you for the good news. I was so busy and haven’t had a chance to check any news but the kids in cages were weighing heavy on my mind and I wanted to send another letter to my Senators. This is such a relieve. Elections matter, and anyone who says to you the two parties are the same should never be taken seriously.

  65. 65.

    Brachiator

    “That was the ugly truth many Democrats had to face in the aftermath of the 2020 election: To beat Trump, they had to swallow their progressive values and push forward an old white man who simply promised to restore calm.”

    I guess that this will be one of the official narratives of the punditocracy.

    It is simplistic, cynical and largely stupid.

    In a weird way, these dopes seem to yearn for Trump World.

    But that’s why they are dopes.

  67. 67.

    Anya

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: They got their opinions of what democrats believe from Rose Twitter.

    I am noticing that these so called journalists are using Trump’s dumb insults. The other day, I was listening to a podcast and they interviewed some director of a new documentary about Trump and he casually stated that Biden was in a basement. Anything else he said after that was not valid.

  69. 69.

    dmsilev

    @Brachiator: Since the pundits do love their narratives, the silver lining in the cloud is that, by axiomatic definition, any initiatives that Biden proposes are centrist and moderate and not contaminated (or, at least, less contaminated) by liberal cooties.

    I’d bet that if a hypothetical President Sanders was proposing the exact same COVID relief bill, the political media would be savaging it as an out-of-touch liberal wishlist that ignores the concerns of Real Americans(tm). Biden is getting a bit of that, but honestly not very much.

  71. 71.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    OT: The decision by the USPS to award the new mail truck contract to OshKosh is being challenged by Rep Ryan and Sen. Brown. They want to know if there was any inappropriate political influence in the awarding of the contract. They also say that DeJoy is only claiming that 10% of the fleet will be electric which contradicts the president’s statements to turn the federal fleet completely electric.

    However, a Detroit-based auto analysist John McElroy had this to say:

    Why them and not Lordstown Motors? Detroit-based auto analyst John McElroy said first and foremost that Oshkosh defense is a proven company with an extensive track record, and Lordstown Motors is a start-up.

    Oshkosh Defense has been around since 1917, and John McElroy says it was simply a matter of the postal service going with a proven company.

    “Lordstown/Workhorse, sorry, they are a startup. There is no track record. Whereas with Oshkosh, it’s been around forever, makes all kinds of military vehicles. They are very familiar with working with government and visa versa,” McElroy said.

    Oshkosh Defense is one of the leading suppliers of military vehicles to the Army and Marines. It also makes large trucks used for emergency purposes at airports.

    “Their trucks have been shipped to every theater of war the United States has been involved in. They know what they’re doing,” McElroy said.

    McElroy said the United States Postal Service is expecting durability and longevity.

    “When it keeps a truck, man, they keep them forever. The first ones they’re running now I think were built in the early 1980s,” McElroy said. “They don’t want just some flash in the pan, here. They want something that’s going to last and be around, and that would dictate going with a proven company.”

    Another drawback, McElroy says, is the hub motor system being used in the Lordstown Motors Endurance pickup.

    “Really cool idea, really cool technology, completely unproven,” McElroy said.

    McElroy has heard President Biden say he wants to convert all federal vehicles to electric, but some of the new postal trucks will still run on gasoline power engines because the United States is not yet ready for all-electric for two reasons.

    “I think the biggest one is charging stations and techs who are qualified to be able to work on these vehicles. That of it is just not in place right now,” McElroy said.

    Altogether, this is why Oshkosh Defense was picked over the Workhorse/Lordstown Motors group.

    “When you add all these things together, I think the post office said let’s go with something we know we can trust,” McElroy said.

    McElroy said he’s not down on Lordstown Motors. He realizes it is still in the testing phase. He just didn’t think it was the right fit for the postal service, right now.

    Well, what do you all think of this McElroy’s take? According to him, it made perfect sense to award OshKosh the contract. I’m frankly dubious about the whole “the US is not ready” argument. How hard could it be to retrofit post offices/warehouse facilities with charging stations, especially in urban/suburban areas where it make the most sense for electric mail trucks?

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    @dmsilev:

    Since the pundits do love their narratives, the silver lining in the cloud is that, by axiomatic definition, any initiatives that Biden proposes are centrist and moderate and not contaminated (or, at least, less contaminated) by liberal cooties.

    Very true.

    But the are not sufficiently “bipartisan,” which is the other bullshit narrative the pundits are pushing.

  74. 74.

    Mary G

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    “Oshkosh knows how the game is played and  their lobbyists will hire me down the road.”

    Don’t try anything new, won’t get anything new. Train some more mechanics.

    These are just guesses. We don’t get thorough, in depth reporters, most of whom probably know less science than 3/4 of Balloon Juice jackals.

  76. 76.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    But the are not sufficiently “bipartisan,” which is the other bullshit narrative the pundits are pushing.

    “Bipartisanship” doesn’t mean anything when the other side are authoritarians hell bent on hurting the country by trying to make the governing party fail. Have these idiots learned nothing over the last 4 years? The GOP are literally fucking fascists who have outright falsely said that the 1/6 Capitol Insurrection was perpetrated by Antifa and are now as we speak trying to rig the next election so that the US is a de facto one party state. These assholes need a clue by four to the head

  77. 77.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): depends on how much land/parking lot each individual office has, and how many vehicles are in the lot and at what time. I would think that the suburban offices have more space to easily put in charging stations as compared to the urban ones. And then of course if you want to put in photovoltaic panels to feed the charging stations,  that’s going to be a lot easier in the suburbs.

    Which is kind of unfortunate, as air pollution is worse in urban areas, and every electric delivery vehicle we can get operating in an urban area is one more reduced source of pollution.

  78. 78.

    gwangung

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): On the one hand, Lordstown has some nice ideas, and if they get implemented, they WILL become the standard.

     

    On the other hand, they’re a startup. Scaling up is a different skill than starting up. And both have many, many points of failures, which compound and feed off of each other.

     

    Oshkosh has one point of failure and they can ease in.

     

    That has a lot of desirable advantages.

  79. 79.

    Another Scott

    It's hard to square Manchin's views of Murkowski & Collins with their actual conduct. After ANWR drilling was defeated by a filibuster, they used reconciliation to get it passed anyway 51-48, thereby undermining the Byrd rule, reconciliation, and bipartisanship all at once. pic.twitter.com/1FNWmxZEnF

    — Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) March 1, 2021

    You mean that the GOP will use any technique they can to get what they want??

    Hmm….

    (via LOLGOP)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  80. 80.

    marklar

    @Steve in the ATL: 

    Sony 70-300mm (you can pick up for around $1200), Sony 75-350 (meant for an APC sensor, but still gives you 18MP if you use the crop sensor, and is perfectly fine if you aren’t a pixel peeper, will run around $900), and the Sony 100-400 if you want the best (and have $2400 to spend).

    Personally, I’m fine with using an APC sensor (Sony a6400) and the 75-350 (equivalent to 510 on full frame), and sharpening/denoising with Topaz is less than half the cost of the full frame 100-400 combination.

  81. 81.

    JustRuss

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):   How hard could it be to retrofit post offices/warehouse facilities with charging stations, especially in urban/suburban areas where it make the most sense for electric mail trucks?

    Keep in mind all the trucks at a post office are going to be recharging at the same time, which means you need a lot of stations and they’re going to need a lot of power.  Building that infrastructure can’t be cheap, so a phased rollout might make sense.

  82. 82.

    different-church-lady

    Louis Pasteur, as per the quip in the title, knew a thing or two about succeeding against the odds.

    See, you’re only one sentence in and already you’re worth ten times as much as the LGM post on the same topic.

    (DCL, +3ish, who is now a full time LGM disser…)

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    @gwangung

    Indeed. Transitioning a very large (and specialized) fleet so radically calls for incremental steps. Should deleterious problems crop up down the line, an established concern is better positioned to pivot to resolve them.

    Also no one expects an immediate 100% change to all electric. The Oshkosh design allows for future refitting of vehicles from gas to electric.

    Can certainly foresee multiple contracts eventually being let which provide for regional supply as opposed to a one size fits all national fleet.

  86. 86.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Hub motors are not “unproven” technology.

    1896 is not “new”.

    Current modern hub motors,  have great advantages over other electric motors for EV’s.

    Over 30 years ago I stuck a 5hp Elco Hub Motor in a Columbia 26MKII sailboat, powered by 8 AGM batteries, backed up by a Honda 2000W Generator.

    It replaced a 48HP Volvo Diesel “thumper”.

    Boat speed under power, remained the same, range tripled, dead quiet, and for 98% of my sailing, never had to use the generator.

    Best part, when sailing under sail, dragging the prop through the water, regenerated electricity. On the average daysail or weekend trip, I came back into the dock with the same full batteries I left with. Even better, excess power could be directed to the “house” batteries.

  87. 87.

    Morzer

    @Jay: I think someone has just won the effortlessly cool tech-whisperer award for the day and possibly all our blog days to come.

  88. 88.

    Another Scott

    @Jay: A very bad feature of hub motors is their high unsprung mass.

    Maybe it doesn’t matter all that much for a mail truck that rarely goes above 35 MPH, but it’s bad for dynamics in all kinds of normal vehicles.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  89. 89.

    Jay

    @Another Scott:

    it’s only an issue when hub motors are used in the wheels of higher speed vehicles. When the hub motor is used as the central drive train, it’s not an issue because it’s fixed in place in the “normal” place a core motor or engine would be.

    While hub motors started out with the idea that they would be stuck in the wheel, modern hub motors simply have the rotor and coils on the outside of the motor, not the inside.

    They also have the advantage that the rotor mass is greater, so more torque.

    I looked at converting a Hilux to electric. 2 5hp Elco’s paired, equalled the the GE 48hp required to be able to drive highway speeds, ( sticking either of them where the engine normally would be).

    I didn’t do it at the time, because the other technology (30 years ago), just wasn’t there. ( Controllers, regenerative braking, batteries, fast chargers).

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: @Mary G:

    Close! I looked into it shortly before or after the site rolled out.

    It’s actually an issue with the BJ font in the particular size that is used for post titles.  It is wrong in the google font library, or whatever it is called.

    I get around it by using the single quote for the start and end of the quoted text.

  95. 95.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Chetan Murthy: Tesla was robbed! Count every volt!

    Oughta be a tag rotating on an armature.

    BTW, has anyone other than yerstruly noticed that “Tesla” is an anagram for “steal”? ;^p

  96. 96.

    J R in WV

    @Steve in the ATL:

    …on a related note, what’s a good telephoto lens for a Sony A7 III?

     

    I don’t shoot with a Sony either, but I do know that Panasonic Lumix lenses are designed by and labeled with the Leica brand, which is one of the most highly regarded lens companies.

    I’m sure a good camera sales person can recommend the proper Lumix Leica lenses to mount on a Sony. The Lumix Leica lenses are a little less expensive than the Leica lenses, for what appears to be the same lens.

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