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Saturday, January 26, 2008
A Dam Breaks?
26 Jan 2008 11:05 pm
Conservatives recognize what's in front of them. Here's Lowry:
That was not only a stirring victory speech by Obama, but a devastating rebuke to the Clintons clothed in inspirational liberal terms.
And Pete Wehner, who has noted Obama's power before:
Unlike Clinton and especially Edwards, the Obama message is about unity, not divisions; and hopes rather than grievances. If Obama wins the Democratic nomination, Republicans have a great deal to fear. He has tremendous break-out potential.
He nearly had K-Lo. And some liberals also saw new strength. Noam Scheiber agrees with me about the speech. Dickerson has a great line:
Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton so badly in South Carolina it may spawn some new kind of Southern colloquialism.
And don't miss Ambers.
(Photo: supporters watch Obama's acceptance speech in South Carolina tonight. By Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty.)
Exit Poll Nuggets
26 Jan 2008 10:36 pm
The exit polls show a couple of fascinating data points: Obama won 52 percent of the non-black vote under 30. Among the over-60s, he won a mere 15 percent of the non-black vote. The legacy is racism is clearly dying. Then this: Obama won every demographic among the religiously observant. And the more devout they are - judging by their church attendance - the better he did. His narrowest margins against Clinton and Edwards were among those who never attend church services.
"A President Like My Father"
26 Jan 2008 09:48 pm
Caroline Kennedy goes where her cousins have not:
I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.
I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.
I've often wondered why even I - who was three months old in a foreign country when he was assassinated - feel the power of the Kennedy charisma from the 1960s. I know the many mistakes he made and the good reasons to criticize his presidency. But the memory of him as a symbol of eternal possibility endures. It endures beyond the shores of this country. Why?
Because America still means something, and every now and again, a person captures it: the restless, liberal hope for a better future, under the sober constraints of a conservative constitution. That was Kennedy. It was also Reagan, as Bill Bennett gracefully recognized tonight. It's real. You can feel it. And who wants to win the presidency by defeating it?
Sometimes, things come together. Watching a black man win the South Carolina primary in a landslide by transcending race: I can't help be moved and inspired. Like so many of my generation and many, many more younger than me, Obama makes me believe in America again, after seven years of brutal, painful, searing disillusionment. I won't let that go. Neither, I have a feeling, will the American people.
(Photo: the scene at Obama headquarters in South Carolina tonight. Win McNamee/Getty.)
Obama Beat McCain and Huckabee Combined
26 Jan 2008 09:34 pm
That's a staggering fact, as a reader reminds me:
In last week's SC GOP primary, McCain and Huckabee (the top 2 finishers), got 147,283 and 132,440 votes respectively. That's a total of 279,723. Obama just pulled down 291,000 by himself. Here's the data.
I'd say this is the game changer. Obama can now say that he's got the best ability to put southern states in play. Obama can attempt a true 50 state strategy. He probably would not win too many southern states, but winning a few absolutely obliterates the GOP's chances in November.
Another interpretation:
This also shows that George W Bush is a uniter after all: People are so fucking frustrated that even rednecks are willing to give a black guy a chance.
Obama's Acceptance Speech
26 Jan 2008 09:25 pm
I've now listened to and read dozens of his speeches, on television and in person and in print. Tonight was, in my judgment, the best. He was able to frame the attacks on him as a reason to vote for him. He was able to frame his foes as the status quo - beyond the Clintons or the Bushes, Democrats or Republicans. He was able to cast his candidacy as a rebuke to the Balkanization of the American public, a response to the abuse of religion for political purposes, a repudiation of the cynicism that makes all political commentary a function of horse-races and spin. It was an appeal to Democrats, Republicans and Independents to say goodbye to all that. It was a burial of Rove and Morris. And it was better than his previous speeches because he kept bringing it back to policy specifics, to the economy and healthcare and, movingly, to this misbegotten war. The diverse coalition he has assembled - including an ornery small-government conservative like me - is a reflection of the future of this country, its potential and its irreplaceable, dynamic cultural and social mix.
This is the America we all love. He is showing us how to find it again. That's leadership.
And, yes. We can.
55 - 27!
26 Jan 2008 09:07 pm
Sorry, but the Clintons were just destroyed in South Carolina in an unprecedented turnout. This was a butt-kicking of massive proportions. How else do you interpret a 28 point margin? It's staggering.
And I'm sitting here watching Bill Bennett, despite his Republican loyalties, clearly happy that we have achieved this breakthrough in civility, in transcending race, in bringing so many people back into the system. Good for Bennett to see the import of this. This is history.
In some ways, I wonder if the Clintons' baring of the fangs hasn't played to Obama's advantage. He is showing he can beat some of toughest competition out there. If he wins, he will have beaten not just Hillary but Bill as well. He will have redefined the Democratic party and remade its politics. By staying civil, by focusing on the big picture, by refusing to take the low road while defending himself robustly: he won the right way. And he will win in a big way.
Yes, we can! Si, se puede!
Barack 1, Bill 0
26 Jan 2008 08:56 pm
In the war of words, both men were hurt, but a majority sided with Obama:
In the exit polls, we asked voters in this primary if the candidates were attacking each other unfairly. Fifty-six percent of those voting so far think Obama attacked Clinton unfairly, and while that is a high number, more people thought Clinton unfairly attacked Obama -- 70%.
Bill's Advance Spin
26 Jan 2008 08:44 pm
In a simple phrase: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice". Listen to it yourself. I'm not making that up.
I don't think there can be any doubt about the Clintons' racial strategy now. The people of South Carolina just rejected that logic by voting for Obama - white and black, male and female - in a diverse coalition in the face of a deliberate attempt at racial polarization. They threw the Clintons' logic back in their faces. Kudos to Josh for noticing this. It's revealing, and depressing.
Obama's Second Coming (Or Is It Third?)
26 Jan 2008 08:30 pm
This looks much bigger than expected. Bill seems to have hurt Hillary's candidacy:
Roughly 6 in 10 South Carolina Democratic primary voters said Bill Clinton's campaigning was important in how they ultimately decided to vote, and of those voters, 48 percent went for Barack Obama while only 37 percent went for Hillary Clinton. Fourteen percent of those voters voted for John Edwards.
Meanwhile, the exit polls also indicate Obama easily beat Clinton among those voters who decided in the last three days — when news reports heavily covered the former president's heightened criticisms of Obama. Twenty percent of South Carolina Democrats made their decision in the last three days and 51 percent of them chose Obama, while only 21 percent picked Clinton.
And Oprah came through:
Fifty-three percent of women - including 79 percent of black women - supported Obama. Clinton received the support of 30 percent of women. Obama was strongest among men, especially black men, while Edwards was strongest among white men.
Race mattered - but by no means as much as some feared, with Obama winning a quarter of the white vote, much better than the 10 percent recorded in some late polls. Is that a reverse Bradley effect? And on the question of unifying the country and defeating the Republicans, Obama scored a huge victory:
Fifty-five percent of South Carolina Democrats viewed Obama as the candidate most likely to unite the country, and 47 percent cited him as most likely to beat a Republican in November. Clinton was cited as most likely to unite the country by 26 percent of Democrats, and 36 percent said she was most likely to win.
These inferences are from the exit polls. The final result is still to come. Stay tuned.
(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty.)
Crist Endorses McCain
26 Jan 2008 08:23 pm
A big blow to Romney in Florida. With Crist, Martinez and South Carolina behind him, the momentum is with the old guy. And the shameful era of American torture may come to an end ...
Is Bill Also After McCain?
26 Jan 2008 06:30 pm
A reader suggests that the real import of Bill Clinton's recent remark about how well his wife and John McCain get along is not an attempt to help Hillary. It's an attempt to damage McCain, the Clintons' next target, in Florida and throughout the South and West. My reader has a nice phrase to describe the power-couple's effect on many of us:
They’re like the flu. You just feel miserable.
The Rules Are For Other People
26 Jan 2008 05:13 pm
The Clintons push the envelope again - on the Michigan and Florida delegates. Ed Morrissey and Josh Marshall come together. Maybe the Clintons can bring the country together again - in revulsion at their expediency. Jon Chait crosses the anti-Clinton Rubicon for the first time:
Something strange happened the other day. All these different people -- friends, co-workers, relatives, people on a liberal e-mail list I read -- kept saying the same thing: They've suddenly developed a disdain for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but I think we've reached an irrevocable turning point in liberal opinion of the Clintons.
Wakey! Wakey!
Right In The Smacker
26 Jan 2008 05:01 pm
An unfortunate moment in investigative journalism:
Yglesias Award Nominee
26 Jan 2008 04:34 pm
"Bill Clinton is not a racist, but he is crafting a message that unleashes the demon of racism into the Democratic primary because it will help him win. He has unleashed this demon: this base appeal to our fears and divisions. It is done and it can not be put back into the bottle.
It will be a part of the 2008 election regardless of who wins. And it has and will hurt Democrats in 2008. Bill Clinton’s released meme is dividing the Party and I do not see a way back to unity," - a Kossite, reflecting growing disgust in Democratic ranks at the tactics of the Clintons.
The Economist On Bill
26 Jan 2008 03:21 pm
An editorial worth absorbing:
The Clintons are in the process of doing the impossible: making the 2008 election a referendum on them, rather than on the Republicans. And the Republicans are inching towards nominating their one candidate, Mr McCain, who has broad popular appeal. If what ought to be a stroll in the park in November becomes a real fight, then the Democrats will know who to blame.
Obama Gains?
26 Jan 2008 03:18 pm
The Rasmussen tracking poll shows a sharp tightening of the national race, with Obama within 3 points of Clinton. It's one day and it's Rasmussen - so the usual caveats. But I wonder: is Bill provoking a backlash?
Delegates Or Votes?
26 Jan 2008 03:13 pm
A must-read Ambers report on how the Cliton and Obama campaigns will be spinning the next couple of weeks. At least.
Bear Band
26 Jan 2008 02:51 pm
The world's first bear boy band.
Dating Male Models
26 Jan 2008 02:37 pm
As Cartman might say, why the fuck not? I like this sentiment from an empowered woman who has the courage of her own desires:
Most of the time, when they end, I think, What an ass. If it's going to turn out like that anyway, I'd rather it be a fine-looking ass.
Exactly.
Von Hoffmann Award Nominee
26 Jan 2008 12:56 pm
"[Bill] Clinton doesn’t like to play an overtly political role anymore; he enjoys the statesmanlike aura that surrounds any ex-president, and he is not about to undermine it, even for his wife’s campaign," - Matt Bai, New York Times Magazine, December 23, 2007.
He admirably cops to it here. Glossary for Dish award criteria here.
Romney Whisper Update
26 Jan 2008 12:45 pm
This thing won't quite go away. A reader writes:
Some people have enhanced the first "he raised taxes" whisper using audio technology and have discovered that there was actually more to it than just "he raised taxes". They've disconvered that more can be heard: "He raised taxes, I'm not gonna...". Listen to the full enhanced audio yourself. Go out and get a tape and enhance it yourself if you think this is wrong.
This is even greater proof that there is something going on here. If this is correct, then it's not just a microphone malfunction, but an ACTUAL answer to the question Romney was given: "He (Reagan) raised taxes. I'm not going to raise taxes."
Go after this! After being lied to about the war, about WMDs, about torture, about absolutely everything from the GOP powerhouse, this cannot be left for us to figure out at a later time once Romney is in the White House!
I really don't know what happened. But I have yet to hear a convincing explanation either.
The Best Clinton Column Yet
26 Jan 2008 12:25 pm
A blast of pure derision from the essential Colbert King.
The View From Your Window
26 Jan 2008 12:20 pm
Gjilan, Kosovo, 12.15 pm.
The Harvard Crimson For Obama
26 Jan 2008 12:16 pm
A pitch-perfect editorial. The younger generation gets it.
A Constitutional Question, Ctd.
26 Jan 2008 12:06 pm
My own rambling thoughts on the dangers - political and constitutional - of a two-headed executive can be read here. Today, Garry Wills provides a deeper analysis, one that goes back to the Founders and their legitimate worries about accountability without a, ahem, unitary executive. He fears that Bill Clinton could become Hillary's Dick Cheney - but worse, in fact, since at least Cheney was on the ballot and in some sense accountable to the public directly. Money quote:
No other vice president in our history has taken on so many presidential prerogatives, with so few checks. He is an example of the very thing James Wilson was trying to prevent by having one locus of authority in the executive. The attempt to escape single responsibility was perfectly exemplified when his counsel argued that Mr. Cheney was not subject to executive rules because he was also part of the legislature.
We have seen in this campaign how former President Clinton rushes to the defense of presidential candidate Clinton. Will that pattern of protection be continued into the new presidency, with not only his defending her but also her defending whatever he might do in his energetic way while she’s in office? It seems likely. And at a time when we should be trying to return to the single-executive system the Constitution prescribes, it does not seem to be a good idea to put another co-president in the White House.
Can we all agree on that?
Predictive Texting
26 Jan 2008 12:06 pm
Why not swear-words? An exploration of the possibilities.
How Obama Has Handled The Clintons
26 Jan 2008 11:54 am
I would have lost it. He didn't. His coolness and good humor under fire have not gotten enough attention. Here's a good take on it.
The Obama-Muslim Emails
26 Jan 2008 11:54 am
Ross, Marc and Matt talk it over in the humming, throbbing intellectually tumescent world of the seventh floor Atlantic library.
Why One South Carolinan Voted For The Clintons
26 Jan 2008 11:50 am
A reader writes:
I intended to vote for Obama this morning and my husband for Hillary. But on the way to the polling place, my five year old daughter asked who we were voting for. I said, "Mommy is voting for a nice man named Barack Obama and Daddy is voting for a nice woman named Hillary Clinton." She replied, "But I thought only men were presidents." It was a punch to the gut. So I took her in with me and let her push the button on the electronic screen for Hillary. (My husband ended up switching and voting for Obama at the last minute so it all evened out.) You can call me a racist if you want, but I don't want any one else's daughter to say the same thing to her mother in four years.
The Art Of Math
26 Jan 2008 11:38 am
Artist Thomas Briggs uses mathematics to create complex webs of color and form. Using tools more commonly applied to computational fluid dynamics, Briggs builds high resolution drawing-like images. The works seen here are reduced over 99 percent.
More after the fold.
Continue reading "The Art Of Math " »
Male Genital Mutilation Update
26 Jan 2008 10:17 am
An Oregon court finds that the views of a 12-year-old boy are a "fact necessary to the determination" of whether he should be circumcised. That's a start.
A Weed Vending Machine
26 Jan 2008 09:59 am
How on earth could one live without one:
After cinching up your doctor's consultation, hit an AVM location to get your prescription approved, fingerprint taken, and a prepaid credit card loaded with your profile: dosage (3.5 or 7 grams, up to 1oz a week) and strain preference (choice of five, including OG Cush and Granddaddy Purple, the mildly hallucinogenic forebear to Prince). Then day or night, all you do is hit a machine and walk away with enough vacuum-sealed, plastic-encapsulated cheeba to adequately treat your illness, and guarantee your car never smells like new leather again.
The Electronic Eye
26 Jan 2008 09:01 am
Contact lenses could become the computer monitors of tomorrow:
One day it might not be unusual to wear a contact lens that projects the phone's display directly onto the eye. Researchers at the University of Washington have taken an important first step toward building contact lenses that could do just that. By incorporating metal circuitry and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) into a polymer-based lens, they have created a functional circuit that is biologically compatible with the eye.
"If you look at the structure of a lens, it's just a simple polymer," says Babak Parviz, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington. A number of researchers are putting electronics into polymers to build flexible circuits or displays, for instance. "What we realized was, we can make a lot of functional devices that are really tiny, and they can be incorporated into a contact lens to do a lot more than just improve vision," Parviz says.
More details here. Art from Ffffound, and here.
The Hispanic Vote In SC Update
26 Jan 2008 08:12 am
Oh well. Obama has at least six Latino supporters:
Note that the Survey USA poll you refer to finds Hispanics to be 1 percent of likely primary voters. In other words, the conclusion that Hispanics support Obama is based on a very small number of people (maybe as few as 6). Further, these are robo-call polls which may or may not present particular problems for people whose native language is not English. In any case, the true test will be NY, NJ, CA and some of the others.
Friday, January 25, 2008
The Corruption Of Feminism
25 Jan 2008 10:30 pm
A reader transcribed the following conversation on Hardball tonight:
Chris Matthews: Faye, you first, you know Hillary Clinton, you know Bill Clinton. What's Bill's role in this thing, is it a good role or a bad role?
Faye Wattleton: Well, I think that Bill Clinton's role is that of the spouses of all the candidates, he's participating as a surrogate for his wife who is running. And I think that its entirely consistent with the ascension of other women to the top offices in their country; they come about it as the result of the president being their spouse or being members of prominent families. So I don't think that we should be so upset and agitated about Mr. Clinton's participation - we should continue to focus on the issues that the people want to hear about...these other matters are really side issues.
Wow. A proud defense of nepotism over feminism. Or rather, as is the Clintons' wont, a total conflation of feminism with nepotism. I remember similar Clintonian feminists in the 1990s trashing, smearing and sliming women who dared to complain about the sexual harassment and abuse of women that Bill Clinton - with his wife's full knowledge - engaged in for years. This couple really do corrupt everything they touch.
Big Bird's Legacy
25 Jan 2008 08:41 pm
A reader writes:
Holt obviously has no children. As a pediatrician, I attempted to heed the American Academy of Pediatrics’ advice on limiting TV for my kids. I tried to teach them about all I wanted them to learn from an early age- I got nowhere. Once my kids started to watch Sesame Street, I saw their eyes light up. They all of a sudden developed a love of letters and numbers and shapes that I couldn’t instill in them personally. The education that these talking puppets gave my children has been far more impressive than anything I did. There’s some kind of magic that spreads into a child’s mind when a talking and singing puppet talks directly to them. Thank God that these puppets were used for good and not evil. I wouldn’t have stood a chance no matter how moral a compass I tried to imbue them with.
Figuring Out Anger At The Clintons
25 Jan 2008 08:33 pm
A reader's eureka moment:
For the last six years, I’ve watched a fear-mongering fool manipulate us, ruin our standing in the world and abuse our principles. It’s been hard to feel good about our country. But when Obama won Iowa and surged in the New Hampshire polls I thought I’d underestimated us. For the first time in my lifetime, my cynical generation was turning out heavily to vote. We were choosing, above all else, to be inspired.
Now, the Clinton campaign has gradually and expertly eviscerated him, and it turns out we’re not that country. We’re still easily manipulated; we’re still scared; and we’re still a little racist. It’s hard not to resent her for that.
South Carolina End-Game
25 Jan 2008 08:02 pm
Charles Franklin pores over the sensitive last-minute polling.
Romney Whisper
25 Jan 2008 08:00 pm
MSNBC's explanation makes no sense at all. Was it a secret service agent?
Face Of The Day
25 Jan 2008 07:57 pm
Miner Stuart Griffin laughs as he leaves the mine after the final shift at the Tower Colliery in Hirwaun, near Merthyr Tydfill on January 25 2008 in Wales, United Kingdom. The Cynon Valley pit is one of the oldest continuously-worked mines in the world and the last deep mine in Wales. Tower is the only colliery within the once-thriving South Wales coalfield to drain all its coal resources and hit the headlines in 1994 when it was subject to a miners buy-out of the deep mine - after it had been closed by the then Conservative Government. By Matt Cardy/Getty Images.
Evita!
25 Jan 2008 07:08 pm
A reader writes:
Regardless of the family last name, I'm a Latin American woman --
The Billary syndrome does indeed bring to mind Evita -- among some more recent and current others. And that's not a good thing by and large. (And also some lesser known pols that were big in the day in my original hemisphere -- Carlos Lacerda.)
I am intoxicated now with my own rage over this situation. It seems my mind is consumed --
How could the Clintons do this to us at this stage of the game? And then it comes to me: I'm being screwed -- and there seems to be NO recourse -- and then more comes to me. And, suddenly, I'm reminded of why the 90s were so heady and so nasty ... It wasn't just that the Clintons were about ME ME ME -- It's that entire culture was a ME ME ME. It's no wonder so many of us went nuts at the time -- and we did -- and lo and behold -- Here we are again. This pair has not only gotten into Obama's brain. They are back with a vengeance in my own wobbly head. Obama is better equipped to deal -- for sure. He's become my political restraining order. After almost 8 years of misery, I am looking to the dark side -- the Repubs are looking better and better!
Whether it's pot, or sex, or ambition or whatever -- The Clintons seem to epitomize doing the nasty without ever going for the full blown, flat out joy of the nasty. And then they take you with them because the alternative seems even less desirable. They want it not both ways but all ways and then seemingly always on top of all that. I feel ill. And like a fool.
And I hardly know what to do with my vote. I feel, dare I say it, violated?
(Photo: Eric Thayer/Getty.)
Should McCain Reject The NYT Endorsement?
25 Jan 2008 06:27 pm
Lawrence Kudlow thinks so.
The "GLBTQTQI" Community
25 Jan 2008 06:12 pm
The queer left jumps yet another shark.
Hillary Clinton's New Black Friend
25 Jan 2008 05:36 pm
Stephen Colbert explains.
A Constitutional Question
25 Jan 2008 05:23 pm
A reader writes:
Here's something else to consider: elected officials and government employees are all subject to ethics rules and regulations. Public officials, and even their employees (including executive branch appointees, congressional staffers and civil servants), take an oath to "support and defend the Constitution" and to "well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter."
Unless I'm wrong, the spouse of the president has no such requirements. The spouse is neither elected nor employed nor appointed, so adheres to no ethical rules or oaths of office. So, it stands to reason that we could soon have a very powerful and influential first spouse (who may even be called to serve as a roving goodwill ambassador to the world, as Sen. Clinton mentioned previously), who is, technically, unaccountable to anyone and unconstrained by any rule or oath.
Obviously, this doesn't mean that the former president would abuse his position. But it does leave us with a situation open to abuse.
Quote For The Day III
25 Jan 2008 05:20 pm
"Are we the country we say we are? Are we the country that holds certain truths to be self-evident, words which incidentally were written by a 33-year-old named Thomas Jefferson. You know, are we the country that judges people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin -- words that were written by Martin Luther King when he was about 34 years old," - John Kerry, National Journal.
Does anyone think that Jefferson was too inexprienced when he wrote that phrase?
Bill and Dick
25 Jan 2008 05:14 pm
An unsettling resonance. More on the Clintons' scorched earth politics here.
"35 Years Of Experience"
25 Jan 2008 05:13 pm
A useful scrutiny of another deceptive Clinton talking point.
"American-Style Torture"
25 Jan 2008 04:52 pm
The phrase appears in Asia Times. Sigh.
Hat tip: Brad.
Another Twist
25 Jan 2008 04:45 pm
Clinton is trying to reinstate Michigan's and Florida's delegates. Ezra Klein:
This is the sort of decision that has the potential to tear the party apart.
Larry Craig's Non-Crime
25 Jan 2008 04:44 pm
What happens in the men's room should stay in the men's room - argues Ann Woolner. I have to agree that Craig is guilty of nothing that any sane society should criminalize.
Hillary's Big Balls
25 Jan 2008 04:39 pm
A reader notes:
You got to admit, Hillary's got big balls. To imply that Obama is trying to leapfrog his way to the presidency when she's basing her campaign around the what she did as first lady and a corporate lawyer is so utterly brazen that it rivals ... it rivals ... well, I'm speechless. That's it. She's dumbfounded me. How do you fight against someone so inclined to distort reality when so many other smart people seem willing to play along with her fantasies?
Blogging As Peer Review?
25 Jan 2008 04:39 pm
An intriguing academic experiment.
Hague On Blair, "President Of Europe?"
25 Jan 2008 04:28 pm
A classic riff from the finest parliamentary debater of his generation, my old friend, William Hague:
Hat tip: Ross and Alex, who rightly points out that David Miliband gets the joke.
Those "Thriller" Prisoners
25 Jan 2008 04:28 pm
They tried to go on tour, apparently. And some security issues prevented them. You think?
The Unbearable Whiteness Of Mitt Romney
25 Jan 2008 04:20 pm
TPM has some video fun. It really is going to be a fun campaign if Willard stays in. Against Obama? Priceless.
Martinez Endorses McCain
25 Jan 2008 04:09 pm
Romney And The Economy
25 Jan 2008 04:04 pm
In Florida, some troubling poll data:
McCain leads 37 percent to 25 percent over Romney among voters who say the economy is the number one issue.
Amazon's Dr Johnson
25 Jan 2008 03:55 pm
A charming profile of the man who has reviewed over 3,500 books for the online merchant. Some faint resemblances - bar the insanity - to William Chester Minor, an unsung hero of the OED.
An Obama-Edwards Deal?
25 Jan 2008 03:43 pm
Novak reports on some rumors that Obama could offer him the Justice Department if he pledges his delegates to the Illinois senator. I have no clue if this is true or not. But it does indicate that Obama is planning on fighting this all the way. Which is probably what he'll have to do. And a grueling, long victory over the Clintons would be stellar training for the general.
Mental Health Break
25 Jan 2008 03:30 pm
Those wacky Europeans and their sexual fantasies ...
A New York City Subway Map
25 Jan 2008 03:26 pm
For, er, white people.
Homosexuwhales!
25 Jan 2008 03:14 pm
The sperm variety, natch. A video!
Liberal Fascism In Action
25 Jan 2008 03:13 pm
A review of Serbian politics.
Bill's Latest Swipe
25 Jan 2008 03:12 pm
It's a veiled criticism of Obama:
"He serves as chair of the most important committee in the United States Congress," Clinton said of [Charlie] Rangel. "He didn't get there by leapfrogging. He got there by lots of hard work."
He can't help himself, can he?
(Correction: I misread the piece and thought one Clinton meant the other. It was Hillary who said this, not Bill. My bad, although it kind of makes my point for me.)
Are We At this Till June?
25 Jan 2008 03:12 pm
A sobering look at the Democrats' delegate math.
That Romney Whisper
25 Jan 2008 03:08 pm
More reckless speculation - what's the web for? - here and here.
Mitt Kerry?
25 Jan 2008 03:03 pm
McCain's new ad.
"Senseless On Both Counts"
25 Jan 2008 03:00 pm
Reihan has a beaut of a post on the NYT's endorsement of Clinton. Here's Ed Morrissey on their counter-productive embrace of McCain.
Thinking Too Hard About Big Bird
25 Jan 2008 02:56 pm
With Sesame Street now online, here is John Holt's 1971 article on Sesame Street from The Atlantic's archives (which are now free along with the rest of the magazine). Holt argued that the show's teaching methods could be improved upon:
...teaching children to count is not a good way to introduce them to the world of numbers. It leads many of them to think that numbers are a kind of procession of mythical figures, dwarfs maybe, always walking in the same order, the first named One, the next Two, and so on. Even if they have been “taught” to “count” a group of objects by touching them in order, saying “one, two, three," they may not realize that the number is a way of talking about the quantity of objects before them. Later, they may think of all arithmetic as a set of complicated and mysterious ritual dances done by these number dwarfs, without rhyme or reason or connection with anything else. Much on Sesame Street would encourage such fancies. More often than not, numbers appear on the screen only as numerals, with nothing to show the quantities they represent.
Jihadist Poetry
25 Jan 2008 02:41 pm
Not quite Wordsworth, is it. The British Jihadist's poem's title is "How To Behead":
It’s not as messy or hard as some may think.
It’s all about the flow of the wrist.
Sharpen the knife to its maximum.
And before you begin to cut the flesh.
Tilt the fool’s head to its left.
Saw the knife back and forth.
No doubt the punk will twitch and scream.
But ignore the donkey’s ass.
And continue to slice back and forth.
Take it away, Dan!
"Romney By A Mile"
25 Jan 2008 02:36 pm
Jim Fallows - a China-residing neophyte to the Republican race - watched the Boca debate and has a winner.
Still Not Getting It
25 Jan 2008 01:57 pm
Traditional newspapers and the online world: a critique from Don MacAskill.
Thank You For Voting
25 Jan 2008 01:48 pm
Hilzoy on the lies of tobacco companies and the Clintons.
The Christianist Elites And Romney
25 Jan 2008 01:41 pm
He's their man. And he has signed on the dotted line:
"Mitt Romney has acknowledged that Mormonism is not a Christian faith," Minnery adds. "But on the social issues we are so similar."
Shoudn't some reporter ask Romney directly if this is true? A lot of Mormons would be interested to know.
The Romney Whisper
25 Jan 2008 12:46 pm
What the hell was that?
A Constitutional Question
25 Jan 2008 12:38 pm
For understandable reasons, most coverage of the Clintons' dual political persona focuses on the oddity of a married couple each seeking the same executive office in turn. This is indeed remarkable in American politics, although more familiar to historians of India, the Philippines or South America. And it allows for people to write as if having a power-couple as co-presidents is just an interesting, even appealing novelty.
But the trouble with such an arrangement is not its tabloidy and democratically primitive charms. It is its under-appreciated threat to democratic accountability and even the Constitution. In the first Clinton term, we had an unprecedented situation where a woman elected to nothing and with no Cabinet rank was given responsibility for the entire healthcare system. She was accountable largely to a man she was married to - not the American people. She functioned not as the traditional spouse of a president, but as a free-floating second president whose line of authority was at once clear (no one dared cross her) and confusing (what legal authority does she have anyway?). As the Clinton term progressed, it appeared that she reverted to a more traditional role - but we do not know since the records of the couple's political arrangement remain sequestered from public scrutiny.
But if we faced a problem in the first Clinton presidency, imagine what we confront in the second. Now, the spouse is actually a two-term former president. What this campaign has revealed is that he intends to play no small role.
Continue reading "A Constitutional Question" »
The View From Your Window
25 Jan 2008 12:30 pm
Okoboji, Iowa, 7.45 am.
Are You Kidding Me?
25 Jan 2008 12:04 pm
Even Joe Klein - perhaps the shrewdest of all Clinton observers over the years - is a little taken aback by Bill Clinton's current shamelessness.
Yglesias Award Nominee
25 Jan 2008 12:02 pm
"George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues. Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause," - Peggy Noonan today.
The Pink Bus
25 Jan 2008 11:52 am
Mexico innovates single-sex transportation - to provide a haven from leering men.
The Boca Debate
25 Jan 2008 11:50 am
My take here.
The Past vs the Present
25 Jan 2008 11:46 am
Peggy Noonan's take on the GOP race:
Mr. McCai