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Saturday, February 2, 2008
Typo Of The Day
02 Feb 2008 08:32 pm
"And for a Republican to be Hillary or Obama, he'll need to win a large number of moderates and non-Republicans. John McCain has shown that he can do that," - Red State.
Face Of The Day
02 Feb 2008 07:43 pm
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney makes phone calls before meeting with the press during a campaign rally at Freeway Ford February 1, 2008 in Denver, Colorado. By Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
Dissent Of The Day
02 Feb 2008 06:49 pm
A reader writes:
I hate to demonstrate the audacity of cynicism here, but isn't your Gandhi post and its implied take on "non-interventionism" a bit oversimplified? There is no doubt that Gandhi was a pivotal, symbolic figure, and that India in particular and resistance to colonialism in general owes a great deal to his influence. That said, it's rather difficult to discount the fact that it was only a British Empire massively weakened, financially and military (for reasons having more to do with German guns than with satyagraha...) that finally granted India its independence; that India was followed by a wave of new states claiming their independence not only from Britain but also from the French empire (and of course that many of these states were born as the result of a far bloodier process than what took place in India - see the Algerian Civil War, or Kenya's Mau Mau for instance), more than suggesting that factors extending far beyond the borders of India were pushing towards the collapse of these two empires at the time; and that the existence of liberal, democratic norms in France and Britain in the first place were fundamentally necessary for the success of Gandhi's "mirror" strategy?
Yeah - that was one sentence. Maybe that's how non-violence wins the day.
Continue reading "Dissent Of The Day" »
Paper Art
02 Feb 2008 06:12 pm
Robert Lang, an origami master extraordinaire, was a physicist and engineer before making origami full-time. A review of his work:
Lang creates creatures of such realism and complexity that it seems impossible that each is composed of a single sheet of paper, no cuts, no glue.
More Images after the fold.
Continue reading "Paper Art" »
McCain's Mo
02 Feb 2008 06:10 pm
This will give Hannity, Hewitt and Coulter a bad weekend:
It is quite possible Huckabee will gain more delegates than Romney on Tuesday.
Obama In Idaho
02 Feb 2008 06:00 pm
His Boise crowd of 15,000 is seven times the total number of people who caucused in the state in 2004.
"The Tsunami That Is Building"
02 Feb 2008 05:44 pm
That's Hewitt's description of the Obama campaign.
The Paranoid Tendency
02 Feb 2008 05:38 pm
I have felt for quite a while that the Bushes made a deal with McCain - that in exchange for his support of the establishment (McCain is about as much a “maverick” as George Herbert Walker Bush or Bob Dole), Bush and the establishment would back him in his run for the Presidency this year. I’ve seen nothing to disabuse me of that notion.
Not so much a crack-up as a melt-down.
Romney In 2012!
02 Feb 2008 05:34 pm
Hinderaker looks on the bright side.
Quote For The Day
02 Feb 2008 04:10 pm
"Ultimately, the choice will say more about our soul as a nation than about the candidates in this election. The boldness of Obama in accepting the Clintons' injection of race as an issue and his insistence on an enlightened answer challenges us all. Even as one's head warns that the strategy will fail, one's heart hopes that it will succeed. Either way, Obama has made the Super Tuesday vote more about who we are than who the candidates running for president are," - Dick Morris. He still has a heart?
Out And Over It
02 Feb 2008 03:26 pm
Boy George has exactly the right attitude about being openly gay:
I don't think of myself as a gay pop star. There are gay pop stars who are totally obsessed with being gay, but I've never been one of those. I love straight people; it takes two of them to make one of us! I've never had that kind of separatist attitude about "gay" and "straight". I love being gay and I support gay culture, but I don't think of myself as being a solely gay artist. [...]
Today's gay pop stars are out of the closet, but they don't express anything about their sexuality. They don't ever use the word "he" in their songs. They think they don't need to, because they think everybody loves them, and they think they're all accepted. You see, they've been lulled into this false sense of security! (Laughs) When I write a song about a boy, I'm not thinking about the radio or any of that; I'm thinking about what I feel. You'll see that in my show.
The View From Harlem
02 Feb 2008 02:52 pm
An intriguing video from Newsweek.
The View From Your Window
02 Feb 2008 02:20 pm
Chicago, Illinois, 4.15 pm.
"He Has No Honor"
02 Feb 2008 01:56 pm
Coulter on McCain.
Clinton Up Four In National Gallup
02 Feb 2008 01:48 pm
Gulp. She now leads by seven.
La Opinion Endorses
02 Feb 2008 01:46 pm
L.A.'s Hispanic paper backs Obama. It's the second biggest paper in LA and the biggest Spanish language paper in the country.
Malkin Award Nominee
02 Feb 2008 01:10 pm
"If you've got a Hillary and McCain race, you've got a third option: That's the pistol on the bed table." - Pat Buchanan.
Get With Barack
02 Feb 2008 01:01 pm
In 1972.
The Gender Gap Closes
02 Feb 2008 12:54 pm
Many of Obama's recent gains have come from women switching from Clinton.
The Obama Movement
02 Feb 2008 12:48 pm
More than a campaign now, much more than a campaign. And it has an anthem:
Do what you can this weekend to help him do it.
"In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."
What Are Lips For?
02 Feb 2008 12:15 pm
One gets the sense it's not procreation:
Human lips enjoy the slimmest layer of skin on the human body, and the lips are among the most densely populated with sensory neurons of any body region. When we kiss, these neurons, along with those in the tongue and mouth, rocket messages to the brain and body, setting off delightful sensations, intense emotions and physical reactions.
Of the 12 or 13 cranial nerves that affect cerebral function, five are at work when we kiss, shuttling messages from our lips, tongue, cheeks and nose to a brain that snatches information about the temperature, taste, smell and movements of the entire affair. Some of that information arrives in the somatosensory cortex, a swath of tissue on the surface of the brain that represents tactile information in a map of the body. In that map, the lips loom large because the size of each represented body region is proportional to the density of its nerve endings.
Hat tip: Mind Hacks.
The Right and Obama II
02 Feb 2008 11:48 am
Susan Eisenhower has endorsed him?
The Right And Obama I
02 Feb 2008 10:45 am
A reader writes:
I live in Vermont. This state is known for its progressiveness but, like every state, we definitely have our hardcore conservative Republican constituency. Today, I was at the video store in my very rural town and I overheard a man and a woman, other customers, loudly talking about politics. It was one of those out-loud conversations that inevitably involves everyone else in a 30 foot radius. Here's what I gathered:
They're both ok with McCain, although not very excited, but they really love his support for the Iraq War. As they browsed the movies, one of them added that he didn't like William H. Macy, the actor, because he heard he was against the war.
They are as anti-Clinton as you might imagine. The thing they agreed about most passionately was that they would never vote for her. One stated - and the other strongly agreed - that if Clinton wins "we're screwed".
And then their tone changed.
Continue reading "The Right And Obama I" »
The Ugliest Hotel In The World
02 Feb 2008 10:23 am
Who wants to visit Pyongyang anyway?
Hat tip: Hit'n'Run.
Correction Of The Day
02 Feb 2008 09:21 am
"In the Jan. 23 issue of Wednesday Journal, River Forest Village President Frank Paris is quoted saying, 'I'll answer any question except if you ask me how many times I sodomized my parent. Those kinds of questions can't be asked.' What Mr. Paris actually said was, 'I'll answer any question except if you ask me how many times I sodomized my parrot,'" - Wednesday Journal, River Valley.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Evil
01 Feb 2008 08:39 pm
Some don't want to use that word about the Islamofascists. But they use women - perhaps with some mental retardation - to kill innocent children delighting in a pet shop. It may not be a very helpful fact in crafting effective strategies against them, but it is a fact.
If they aren't evil, nothing is.
Two-Day Post-Edwards Tracking
01 Feb 2008 08:06 pm
Rasmussen has it a tie:
The last two nights of tracking were the first without John Edwards in the race. For those two nights, it’s Clinton 44% and Obama 42% meaning that Clinton’s support is essentially unchanged. This suggests that many former Edwards supporters now support Obama, many others have yet to make a decision, and few currently support Clinton.
A week ago, she was eleven points ahead. Si se puede!
Face Of The Day
01 Feb 2008 07:45 pm
An Iraqi man, injured in a bombing at a pet market, lies on a hospital bed on February 1, 2008 in Baghdad, Iraq. At least 64 people were killed and many other were wounded when two female suicide bombers blew themselves up at a two separate pet markets in Baghdad, Iraq. By Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images.
Coulter-Lash
01 Feb 2008 07:43 pm
Expelling a toxin.
The LA Times Endorses
01 Feb 2008 07:38 pm
Not sure what difference it makes, but their argument is solid enough:
In the language of metaphor, Clinton is an essay, solid and reasoned; Obama is a poem, lyric and filled with possibility. Clinton would be a valuable and competent executive, but Obama matches her in substance and adds something that the nation has been missing far too long -- a sense of aspiration.
Obama and the Urban-Rural Divide
01 Feb 2008 06:38 pm
Jonathan Raban notices something important:
I've been to those counties, their miles of lonely roads where you can drive for half an hour before encountering another vehicle, their scattered ranches and isolated towns, their seasonal creeks marked by lines of spindly cottonwood trees, the overwhelmingly Caucasian cast of their people. Out there in the mountains, sagebrush and high desert, Obama carried the day by far greater margins than his overall loss of the popular vote to Clinton across the state, and came out of the caucuses with one more delegate than she did.
Remember that in 2004 every American city with a population over 500,000 voted Democrat, and the Republicans won by taking the countryside and the outer suburbs. The blue state/red state division is better expressed in terms of the persistent conflicts between the big cities and their rural hinterlands, over land use, water rights and environmental, class and cultural issues. Red states are simply those where the country can outvote the urban centres, while in blue states the opposite is true. The perception that America has liberal coasts and a conservative interior merely reflects the fact that the coastal states are home to the largest metropolitan areas with the most electoral muscle. Last time around, for instance, Bush easily won the heartland state of Missouri, but was as crushingly defeated by Kerry in St Louis as he was in the cities of New York, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle.
So Obama's victory over Clinton in rural Nevada says something important about his ability as the apostle of national reconciliation.
A Feminist On Circumcision
01 Feb 2008 05:05 pm
Strangely compelling:
Foreskin may arguably not be a huge deal, but I think it's simply wrong to remove a part of a person's genitals without their consent. However, I don't think circumcised men are horribly "mutilated." I don't think that there's anything weird or unattractive about it. I don't think that they're all psychologically scarred. And I think it's shitty to suggest otherwise.
The TSA Online
01 Feb 2008 04:33 pm
They really shouldn't have allowed reader comments, should they?
The Dish At The Atlantic
01 Feb 2008 04:30 pm
Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog's residence at the Atlantic.com, after one year at Time.com and six years of total independence. I'm really grateful to all of you who've stuck with the blog through thick and thin through what is now its eighth continuous year. The last six weeks have been particularly nuts, as the campaign has taken off and I decided to go balls-to-the-wall until this primary season is over. Yep: I put up around 1,600 separate posts in the past month. Forgive me if I'm a bit bleary.
Th Atlantic has allowed me to have a home with real support, fellow-bloggers and writers to cavort with, wonderful editorial guidance with no editorial veto, a now full-time assistant, and a bevy of interns tracking down and highlighting a variety of new blogs, sources, and sites to mine for bloggy nuggets and insight. Video and photography and reader contests have all added to the mix, and I'm hoping to experiment some more in the year ahead. It sounds like a suck-up, but I couldn't have found a better home. I always knew it was an honor to be welcomed into a magazine with the history and reputation and staff of the Atlantic. I had no idea it would be such a blast as well.
We've also soared in traffic. The Dish garnered around 25 million page views in my year at Time. It has racked up a little shy of 40 million page views in the first year at the Atlantic. The last month was almost double our previous record - with 7.6 million page views in January 2008 alone. On Technorati's list of linked blogs, the Dish has leaped up the chart. Thanks for reading, emailing, nudging, caviling, complaining, praising, forwarding, and suggesting. And the beat goes on ...
Living In America
01 Feb 2008 04:11 pm
Huckabee defines freedom:
"The beauty of America is that a person can come and even make a disruption, and you know what, that person is not going to be taken out and shot."
Skin Art
01 Feb 2008 03:27 pm
Red State For McCain
01 Feb 2008 03:09 pm
Feel the love.
Reaganism RIP
01 Feb 2008 02:59 pm
An obit from NRO.
Home Cinema Porn
01 Feb 2008 02:59 pm
Loads of people have mega-sized TVs. Not everyone has a Star Trek home movie theater.
The Coolest Movie Promotion
01 Feb 2008 02:56 pm
A water and laser show creates a Loch Ness monster in Tokyo Bay. Probably more entertaining than sitting through The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
A Literary Quandary
01 Feb 2008 02:56 pm
Jessa Crispin wonders:
If you already wrote a memoir about having obsessive compulsive disorder a few years back, are you allowed to publish a new memoir about your hypochondria?
(Hat tip: Tyler Cowen).
The WSJ Boots Romney
01 Feb 2008 02:42 pm
That's gotta hurt:
Mr. Romney spent his life as a moderate Republican, and he governed the Bay State that way after his election in 2002. While running this year, however, he has reinvented himself as a conservative from radio talk show-casting, especially on immigration.
And so he's left with the talk-show hosts, who seem to have persuaded themselves these past few years that they are the GOP.
Now: Three Points
01 Feb 2008 02:36 pm
Within the margin of error. Gallup's latest:
Beam Me Up, Yoko
01 Feb 2008 02:08 pm
NASA broadcasts a Beatles classic across the universe. Lovely Rufus Wainwright video here.
Drawing Obama
01 Feb 2008 01:56 pm
And thinking Lincoln. A cool video of Steve Brodner's artwork in motion.
Yglesias Award Nominee
01 Feb 2008 01:44 pm
"I think I should just be on the record that I disagree with the tone, tenor and substance of much — though certainly not all — of the anti-McCain commentary around here. It's not that I object to a single post or comment — though there've been a few. It's that I disagree with the overwhelming impression that supporting McCain is some kind of lunacy. I have serious disagreements with McCain. I think it is entirely right to disagree with him on all sorts of issues and entirely legitimate to think he would be bad for the party, bad for conservatism or bad for the country to have him as the nominee or the next president. I agree with some of those sentiments, disagree with others.
But this disaster talk leaves me cold. McCain wouldn't be my first pick. Then again, none of the candidates were really my first pick. But I think the notion that, variously, conservatism, the country or the party are doomed if he's the nominee or the president is pretty absurd.
And I find such claims odd coming from some people who've insisted for a couple years now that the war on terror is the #1 overriding issue of this campaign," - Jonah Goldberg, NRO.
The View From Your Window
01 Feb 2008 01:17 pm
Cuzco, Peru, 7 am.
Why Last Night Mattered
01 Feb 2008 01:13 pm
I'm going to stick with my hunch and reiterate that last night was a key win for Obama. Why? Chuck Todd explains:
He proved that he belonged on the same stage as Clinton. And that's an important accomplishment, because you keep wondering whether undecided voters are waiting to see if Obama can prove his mettle for the presidency. There's a theory that believes just that. And if that theory is true, then last night's debate could prove to be very important to Obama. The audience was undecided voters and former Edwards supporters, and we're guessing these folks have a fairly low bar for Obama to prove himself to them, compared to the bar they have for Clinton since they are still not on board with the more well-known candidate.
It's what Mark Blumenthal identifies as the "readiness" question. Last night, Obama made huge gains on that question. And Edwards' withdrawal made it possible.
In Tennessee
01 Feb 2008 01:11 pm
The Edwards vote appears to be shifting to Obama. The same dynamic appears at work in New Jersey, where her 17 point lead has collapsed to a mere six in ten days.
Quote For The Day
01 Feb 2008 12:57 pm
"When Sean Hannity says he’s voting for me, when Laura Ingraham says she’s endorsing me ... Rush
has been going after McCain pretty aggressively. Michael Reagan has
been pretty aggressive. The world of conservatism is pretty solidly
behind my effort," - Mitt Romney, today. He doesn't sound like he's conceded.
Obama Surging
01 Feb 2008 12:49 pm
A straw in the wind in Connecticut?
A Tory For Obama
01 Feb 2008 12:45 pm
Jeffrey Hart, the ur-conservative, endorses Barack Obama:
Jeffrey Hart sat at his kitchen table in slippers, reading Barack Obama's words aloud. The retired Dartmouth professor, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, wore on his shirt an artifact of the 1900 Republican presidential ticket -- a McKinley-Roosevelt pin.
“I am not opposed to all wars,” Hart intoned, quoting a 2002 speech before the Illinois State Legislature in which Obama, then a state senator, had warned of the perils of invading Iraq. “I'm opposed to dumb wars.” Looking up from the page, Hart nodded his approval.
“Very Burkean,” he said, referring to the 18th century Irish political writer Edmund Burke, hailed by many as the founder of modern conservatism. “Prudential. A sense of history, and what we're up against there.”
Adultery Is Rarely This Funny
01 Feb 2008 12:30 pm
Sarah Silverman is doing unspeakable things with Matt Damon:
If You Lose Hewitt ...
01 Feb 2008 12:27 pm
I guess she'll always have Mickey. Coulter gets a talking to from Baghdad Hugh:
If Ann Coulter's declares again that she'd campaign for Hillary at CPAC, she will be booed and rightly so. Not only did her grandstanding on Hannity & Colmes divert attention from the real issue before conservatives -- the need to abandon the idea of voting for Huckabee or Paul and rally to Romney -- she further fractures an already deeply divided GOP.
Are you enjoying this as much as I am?
Two Obama Conversions
01 Feb 2008 12:25 pm
A reader writes:
Yesterday afternoon, a friend called me to catch up. He told me he was planning to vote for Clinton, but didn’t really have a good reason other than the old “experience” excuse. He then told me he was persuadable, so I went into all the reasons why I was voting for Obama, then explained why I would not vote for Clinton. By the time I was done with him, I had him converted. Just an hour later, my dog walker came by and saw me watching MSNBC. He and I had virtually the same talk, except he told me that he was worried that Obama doesn’t offer any specifics. I referred him to Obama’s website. He returned today and told me he had read through much of the information on the site, and was just about ready to switch his vote. By Tuesday, I’ll have him on the right path, too.
I wonder if this is one of the reasons for Obama’s rising poll numbers.
Continue reading "Two Obama Conversions" »
Ross Gets It
01 Feb 2008 12:02 pm
The state of the political union:
The Republicans last night looked like men competing for a chance to lose an election. Tonight, Hillary and Obama looked like they were competing to be President of the United States.
JPod is even more succinct:
If she's ahead, she won. If he's ahead, he won. I think he's ahead.
Me too.
The Misery Of Middle Age
01 Feb 2008 11:54 am
The psychic gloom of the 40s has now been scientifically verified. Maybe it's just a period of realizing you're going to die. I got that out of the way in my twenties.
C'mon, Al
01 Feb 2008 11:19 am
A well-connected Tennesseean told me two things today that got me thinking about this. The first is that Obama and Gore have been speaking regularly, about every two weeks or so. The second is that, despite this, and despite Tennessee’s primary on Tuesday, Obama has not visited the state since June. It may be simply that he does not plan on competing there. Or it may be that he’s been waiting for a special occasion.
Can someone dress up as manbearpig and camp out on his lawn?
Yglesias Award Nominee
01 Feb 2008 11:19 am
"The impossibilist, increasingly unhinged right wing of the party, the latter-day Bourbons who have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing from the past decade, are still a powerful force. They could, if they chose, destroy Mr McCain and the new Republican leadership with a guerrilla campaign for the next nine months.
But they'll need to be aware that the price for that victory may well be the destruction of the very party they will be claiming to save," - Gerard Baker, The Times.
The Kodak Debate
01 Feb 2008 11:06 am
My live-blogging last night is here. My bottom line here.
Among The Illegals
01 Feb 2008 10:43 am
An engrossing little video about a Brooklyn priest who'd drive Lou Dobbs up the wall. He likes McCain, btw.
"The Rising Tide Of Geffenism"
01 Feb 2008 10:33 am
Peggy Noonan coins a phrase.
Limbaugh, Malkin And Coulter?
01 Feb 2008 10:20 am
McCain's candidacy looks better every day. Coulter on Clinton and McCain:
"I think she would be stronger on the war on terrorism."
"Overwhelmingly Obama"
01 Feb 2008 10:10 am
That's how Lunt'z's independent focus group felt:
Mottaki Out
01 Feb 2008 09:34 am
Did he sit too close to Zalmay? An interesting parallel: Bolton slimes Khalilzad; Ahmadinejad slimes Mottaki.
A Hydrogen Fuel Breakthrough?
01 Feb 2008 08:24 am
Encouraging research news.
Nude Airways Update
01 Feb 2008 08:06 am
One flight is sold out already - with journalists. In my experience, most journalists look better with their clothes on. Silver lining: no hot beverages allowed.
Limbaugh vs Conservatism
01 Feb 2008 07:21 am
John Cole reminds us of some basic truths:
It sure would be nice to think that the base of the dwindling GOP is not as batshit insane as the nutters at the NRO, Red State, etc., but I have not seen much evidence of it. The thing that needs to be said, over and over, though, is that Rush Limbaugh and those guys simply aren't conservatives. They just aren't. Radically restructuring government to create an unaccountable executive is not conservative. Building a security apparatus that is designed to spy on citizens is not a conservative principle. Runaway spending and bloated budgets are not conservative ideas. Torture and permanent aggressive wars are not conservative principles. Fearmongering and keeping the electorate scared is not a conservative principle. And on and on.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Will Gore Endorse?
31 Jan 2008 11:01 pm
Time is running out, unless he wants to be a macher at a brokered convention.
Ambers On Kodak
31 Jan 2008 10:59 pm
A nice point:
I think Clinton’s goal tonight was to essentially humble herself before the Democratic Party that rebuked her so profoundly in South Carolina. Substance and niceness and graciousness were the order of the day. By her own standards she succeeded. She still doesn’t have a good answer to the dynasty question. I hear it a lot from voters on the trail. “We are all judged on our own merits” is a tautology.
Not her first.
Josh On Kodak
31 Jan 2008 10:16 pm
He scores it a narrow win for Obama.
Obama Won
31 Jan 2008 10:08 pm
It was, I think, his best debate in the campaign so far. The one-on-one format elevated him instantly and he commanded the stage and the occasion. Hillary Clinton did not do poorly. All her strengths were on show: the policy mastery, the gaffe-free talking points, the Clinton record in the 1990s. But that made his mastery all the more impressive. The good natured sparring helped him. He neutralized her on healthcare and simply cleaned up on the war in Iraq. But most crucial: he seemed like a president. He was already battling McCain. She was still pivoting off Bush. In his body language, he carefully upstaged her, without looking as if he were trying. By the end of the debate, he was pulling her chair back for her.
I'd say that he won the primary election tonight. She is still a formidable candidate and her massive institutional advantage may eventually give her the nomination. But she hasn't won this primary argument or this primary battle. If she becomes the nominee, it will be because she survived the primaries. He won them.
You know my bias. It's on my sleeve. But I've criticized Obama's performances in the past and couldn't find a flaw tonight. A good closer, as I've been told for over a year now. You can say that again.
(Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty.)
Live-Blogging Kodak
31 Jan 2008 08:15 pm
9.46 pm. Obama, if I heard him right, just took on Hollywood in the belly of the beast.
9.40 pm. "Right on Day One." Bulls-eye. He's pulling ahead, it seems to me.
9.30 pm. Clinton says that a Democratic president will need "gravitas" to win the argument on Iraq. But the strange effect of this one-on-one debate is actually to elevate him to a level of authority that Clinton's long career in the public eye has bestowed on her. Gravitas? He's got it. Judgment? The record on Iraq speaks for itself.
9.24 pm. Objectively, Obama wiped the floor with her. And throughout this debate, he keeps bringing up McCain, advertising his own ability to tackle him. Particularly acute in speaking of "clarity" and in being a Democrat least vulnerable in withdrawing troops from Iraq. This was the clearest policy difference and Obama made the most of it.
9.15 pm. She says that everyone should be judged on their own merits and then launches into a recitation of the achievements of her husband's previous administration and then claims that it takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush. Awful answer. But what answer can she give? She has plenty of talent to make it on her own, but she chose to gain power with the assistance of nepotism. And she wants it every which way again. Ugh.
9.13 pm. Oddly, the civility seems to be working for Obama - and he certainly doesn't seem to feel he needs to knock Clinton off a front-runner porch. They're both acting as if they are in the lead.
9.10 pm. Clinton just played the gender card front and center, as an argument for "change". She keeps having it every which way on identity politics. Which is to say: she'll say anything that works to her advantage from moment to moment. Worth knowing. Obama has more restraint. (And did she really feel the need to cite Kerry, Bobby and Kathleen?)
9.08 pm. Obama on Romney: funny and brutal. He's good on offense. The JFK analogy works because he really does have some wit.
9.04 pm. On the "Ready On Day One" question, Obama's response was sharp, even funny. She bored on about herself. But maybe I'm a hopeless audience for her. She just seems smug to me.
8.55 pm. "For so many years I have stood with farm-workers." Oy. Clinton looks as if she realizes she lost ground with Hispanics in the immigration first round. A reader emails:
She sounds like she's running for HHS secretary, not president.
That's about right. Obama begins to seem like the authoritative figure here. Calmer. Clearer.
8.45 pm. Interesting exchange on immigration. Obama defends illegal immigrants and says they are scapegoated. Clinton is more circumspect. Probably not a good idea to say that she opposes mass deportation as not "practical." This round goes to Obama - because he's not in a defensive crouch on the issue.
8.40 pm. Nice Obama push-back on the tax-and-spend critique. And a sign that he can widen the wedge between McCain's past record against Bush's tax cuts and McCain's current position. Clinton will never be able to exploit internal Republican divisions. Because the prospect of a third Clinton term immediately abolishes them.
8.35 pm. It's a pretty even debate. Which helps the Clintons. Obama is much better in a set speech. Her command of policy detail comes through. And, so far, she hasn't been too grating.
8.30 pm. They are not disabusing me of the notion that discussing the details of healthcare policy is really boring.
8.22 pm. A nice touch from Obama in accepting Clinton's description of their policy differences and challenging her on those grounds. On healthcare, I prefer Obama's less invasive approach. But then I prefer the Republicans' even less invasive approach.
8.20 pm. The Clintons' message: we can solve your problems. Forget the highfalutin rhetoric. We can actually do it.
8.14 pm. Pitch-perfect, statesmanlike opener from Obama. Nice points against identity politics.
(Photo: David McNew/Getty.)
Email From The Kodak Theater
31 Jan 2008 07:42 pm
A reader writes:
I just got back from the Kodak Theater to support Barack Obama. It was quite the scene. The place was packed with supporters, and I'd say 1 in 3 had some sort of sign, many of which were handmade. Hillary had her supporters there, but Obama's folks outnumbered them about 4 to 1, I'd say.
The difference in the crowds was startling. Hillary's group was mostly white and latino, women, and one African American that I saw. Once I got settled with my sign and had a chance to see my fellow supporters, I couldn't help but chuckle. To my right, a tall Black man with dreads, flanked by an elderly white couple. To my left, a 15 year old with a yarmulke, an asian woman in her 30's, and an early 20's something Emo kid with died black hair and stretched ear lobes. EVERY lanai had a similar makeup. I stood in the middle, a white man, weeks away from turning 30, and you couldn't have wiped the smile from my face.
In this ass backwards town, in this gaudy tourist trap, I felt something I have never felt before while living in Los Angeles: community.
The Big Question
31 Jan 2008 07:12 pm
Joe Klein asks it:
If she is elected, who exactly will be President? What happens when there is a real crisis? My guess is, she'd be able to handle almost anything ... except him. I could easily see him jumping the shark, sending mixed messages when a single voice of authority is crucial — especially if the crisis involves one of his specialties, like the Middle East.
Ted Olson Catches The McCain Train
31 Jan 2008 06:47 pm
Jen Rubin has the scoop.
A Latin Rush
31 Jan 2008 06:45 pm
Obama scores a major coup in reaching listeners to Hispanic talk radio in key February 5 states.
Two Girls, One Cup, The Reaction Shots
31 Jan 2008 06:36 pm
Slate had the good sense to post a slide-show of various YouTubers reacting to another YouTube. Here's my favorite. I have a very similar response watching a Hillary Clinton campaign ad:
Forecasting The Olympics
31 Jan 2008 06:18 pm
Chinese meteorologists crack down on bad weather.
That Bad Re-Baathification Law
31 Jan 2008 05:42 pm
You remember: the one actual national act of political reconciliation in Iraq? The one actual positive political result of the surge? Two words: never mind:
"We cannot regard this law as a step in the national reconciliation process. The spirit of revenge is so clear in many articles of the law," [vice-president] Hashemi said in an interview.
"It is not only me who objects to signing it, but the whole Presidency Council."
The council consists of President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Shi'ite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, and Hashemi. It must ratify all laws passed by parliament, otherwise they are sent back to the legislature.
The View From Your Window
31 Jan 2008 05:28 pm
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, 6.43 am.
Clinton's Fundraising Skills
31 Jan 2008 05:22 pm
"Plouffe said the [Obama] campaign, surprisingly, had its best single fundraising period the day after losing the New Hampshire primary to Clinton."
Von Hoffmann Award Nominee
31 Jan 2008 04:54 pm
"For all intents and purposes, McCain's campaign is over. The physicians have pulled up the sheet; the executors of the estate are taking over. Paying bills and winding down - not strategizing, organizing, and getting the message out - will be the order of the day," - Charlie Cook, National Journal, last July.
I actually saw the logic of McCain's victory back in November. My Times of London column holds up pretty well:
The odds against McCain are still high. But he is not unimaginable as the nominee. It’s worth recalling that in December 2003, at about this time in the primary cycle, John Kerry had a national rating of 4%. If one establishment Vietnam vet can come back from the political dead to win the nomination it can happen again.
An Awards Glossary is here.
Malkin Award Nominee
31 Jan 2008 04:39 pm
"The Republican Party has been hijacked. Over the past month a new Axis of Evil has emerged -- not one based in Damascus, Tehran or Pyongyang -- but instead in Cedar Rapids, Charleston, South Carolina, Derry, New Hampshire and Boca Raton, Florida. It is the liberal and “independent” voters in these 4 states that have nearly completed a deed that makes Kim Jong Il envious -- the near crippling of the American Electoral System. These four states have combined their native liberal populism with an imported liberal electorate and have forced the GOP to accept a nominee so distasteful that in more than one poll -- the numbers of voters choosing not to vote and those choosing to vote third party actually exceed those who will hold their nose and vote for Maverick, War Hero, Amnesty Supporter, John McCain." - Brett Winterble.
Volcker For Obama
31 Jan 2008 04:21 pm
An interesting