THIS WEEK, we’re pleased—and, we confess, just a bit apprehensive—to bring you the pilot edition of our new political roundtable, “The Pontificast.” It’s been in the works for a good while, and we’re finally ready to put an episode out there for your consumption, review, and, with any luck, enjoyment. We want the show to resemble what would happen if you and three friend were shoved into a room and handed a microphone and a copy of the New York Times. As unprepared, unpolished as possible. Just raw “analysis.”

Keep a couple of things in mind: 1) at any moment in this broadcast, there’s a 65-80% chance we have no idea what we’re talking about; 2) most of us have never done a panel discussion before; and 3) we’re all hunched over a laptop in our conference room. So our apologies in advance for any lack of quality in skill, intellect, or audio quality. (We’re moving to a real studio next time).

And most of all, we want to hear what you think. Let us know what we can do better next week. Give us some much-needed stage coaching. Rant about the obnoxious things we said (we promise we’ll read and discuss substantive letters on the air). To get in touch with the Pontificast crew, email feedback@patrolmag.com.

The Pontificast for October 24, 2008
(click to play, right-click to download mp3 file).

Articles discussed this week:

Topic A: Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama

• Colin Powell on Meet the Press

• Rich Lowry, “Colin Powell’s Conventional Weapon,” National Review.

• Fred Kaplan, “Who Cares How Powell is Voting?,” Slate.

• David Sessions, “The New Republic: When The Man and The Moment Meld,” Patrol.

• John Heilemann, “The Right’s Class War,” New York.

Topic B: The “death” of libertarianism

• Jacob Weisberg, “ The End of Libertarianism,” Slate.

• Brink Lindsey, “The End of Jacob Weisberg,” Cato@Liberty.

• Ross Douthat, “Is Libertarianism Discredited?” The Atlantic.

• Matt Welch, “The Eternal Death of Libertarianism,” Reason.

• “Capitalism At Bay,” The Economist.