I knew that Matt Yglesias was a smart young man, but I had no idea he did impersonations. You may know him just because I write so much about him here. I often think he is too clever and provides conservatives with policy cover on some economic issues. In particular, like most intellectuals of his age, he is none too fond of workers and unions. And he can be very silly when writing about things outside of politics. Regardless, he is a smart guy with some very good insights. He is also a white man with beard, glasses, and little hair.

This morning he was doing an amazing impression of Democratic strategist Basil Smikle on Up with Steve Kornacki:

On the segment, we also got a little of Josh Barro (who is rather cute with a little hair) cheer leading for Michael Bloomberg’s effort to destroy the Democratic Party. As I’ve argued a lot recently, Barro may support a more practical conservative movement, but all of his actions only serve to strengthen modern (non-practical) conservatives and harm liberals. It’s the same as with the libertarians: they think of themselves as outside the conservative movement but all they do is provide intellectual firepower for the conservative policy status quo.

But I’ll say one thing for Barro: at least he was actually on Up with Steve Kornacki during that segment.

Update (23 June 2013 7:14 pm)

Yesterday, Matt Yglesias tweeted the following:

That’s very nice given all the nasty things I wrote about him above. He is a better man than I. But in my defense, I take it as a given that Yglesias is a brilliant young man—my readers know just how much I gush about him—and quote him! But if you only read this article, you might think I didn’t like him much. But I figure people who reach the professional heights that he has must have developed a thick skin.