Jonathan Chait is easily impressed

In a silly puff piece about the raging Hulk that is Erskine Bowles, Chait writes:

First, I’m incredibly impressed that the reporter, Damian Paletta, transcribed Bowles’ use of the word “dern,” rather than change it to “darn.” But is it really spelled “dern”? I always thought it was “durn.” Does the Wall Street Journal style guide have a policy on this or was Paletta winging it?

That’s your lead takeaway, Jonny? “Dern” vs “darn?” Gonna go with that?

Getting to actual policy, there’s this howler.

In the medium term, once the economy recovers, we have high structural deficits inherited from the Bush administration…

“…inherited from the Bush administration.” Not that Chait will ever wander over into the truth of things, but the Obama deficit in February 2011 exceeded the entire Bush deficit of 2007. One month of Obama, and the year’s shortest month at that, more debt than one year of Bush. Obama has racked up more debt in his 19 months in office than all of the previous presidents combined.

Why does anyone take this Chait guy seriously?