Generations of government policies didn’t change anything for the 1 billion occupants of the world’s slums. So today’s policymakers aren’t focused on “replacing or eradicating them…Policy has shifted toward improving slum conditions incrementally, helping residents gradually become better off, even if still living within the slums.”

Arlen Specter rehashes Justice Ginsburg’s ‘93 confirmation fight with a question to Solicitor General nominee Elena Kagan, asking whether she believes Ginsburg’s rather extreme positions on the age of consent (she suggested 12) and other issues are “moderate” as she wrote in a book review. Kagan parries, responds. She’s smart.

A “special purple folder” is delivered daily to the POTUS with ten letters from “real Americans.” DC is an easy place to get insulated from reality, as seen in W’s second term. It’s to Obama’s credit that he restored the Reaganesque tradition. Plus, good anecdotes about people choosing between eating and lyme disease meds.

Ryan Lizza profiles WH COS Rahm Emanuel, winner. His famous OCD is on display, his relentless dedication to maximizing information, and other aspects as well: “When Emanuel was a teen-ager, he lost half of his right middle finger, after cutting it on a meat slicer—an accident, Obama once joked, that ‘rendered him practically mute.’”