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Bruce Cain, the Berkeley professor and politics junkie who has been quoted on the recall more than most of the candidates, is leaving for four months of real work at the Brookings Institution. By then, the recall will be history and political scribes will be in the thick of the presidential primaries. But the Cain withdrawl could be tough, says a writer in the East Bay Express.
What makes Cain and his oft-quoted colleagues -- like USC's Sherry Bebitch Jeffe and Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College -- such hot properties is that they serve as a reporter's mandatory "neutral" experts, offering cool-headed conventional wisdom to counter the partisan spin...
(Says Cain:) "The whole business of putting comments into the press is very complex because, yes, sometimes you're giving ideas to reporters and shaping their stories. But just as frequently, if not more so, the reporters are looking for the quote that they want to fit into the story."
Link via Romenesko.