Politics
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Wall Street Week
I don't have a lot to say about the momentous events taking place this week with regard to American financial markets except to repeat some things I've said frequently before. It's a complicated mess–and of course some kind of government intervention is necessary–but it boils down to some fundamental ideas. One is that the people
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How Smart Is McCain? (Update near top)
From Josh Marshall: Well, we've heard the interview now. And John McCain either doesn't know who the Prime Minister of Spain is, thinks Spain is a country in Latin America, or possibly both. Read more. [UPDATE: See also Marshall's response to Scheunemann's explanation of McCain's apparent confusion. You can judge for yourself what you think
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What’s at Stake (Updated)
Frank Rich shows this morning that he understands what the stakes are: WITH all due deference to lipstick, let’s advance the story. A week ago the question was: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? The question today: What kind of president would Sarah Palin be? It’s an urgent matter,
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How Republicans Think II (Updated)
From John Cole: The McCain campaign truly is a bizarre exercise in the suspension of reality. Everything they label as a priority, they go out and then do the exact opposite. Consider: 1.) Decide that lobbyists are the number one evil in politics, and then staff your entire campaign from top to bottom with… lobbyists.
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Kindergarten Politics
I was thinking about using the hoary Lucy/Charlie Brown annual football farce as an analogy, but that one is a bit worn out, and it only gets at a part of what the GOP is doing to the American public. A better analogy might be that verbal joust we all got into with the pesky
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I Hope Obama Is Reading Joe Bageant
Better yet, he should hire him as a consultant. He's author of Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War. He's in England now and is making something of a media splash explaining to Brits "redneck" culture and of its influence in American politics. An interesting piece here appeared on BBC website, and this
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Why Is It OK for Republicans to Be Negative?
An ongoing theme argued about in this blog and its comments section is the counterproductivity of Democrat or liberal intellectual condescension to the folks in red America. And yet Sarah Palin's speech dripping with contempt for Obama and Democrats in general is given an A by 60% of those polled, and she currently sports a
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The McCain Speech
Some quick thoughts: It struck me as schizophrenic, as if he's trying to do two opposite things at the same time–please the base and appear non-partisan to attract independents in the middle. All the policy stuff was the same-old, same-old Republican litany, but then he says he wants to use Democratic ideas? Is that believable
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Palin Speech (Updated)
Pretty much what I expected. It's clear that the GOP wants to fight this election on its turf, which is personality/character, tribal identity, and cultural values. But this time around I don't think it's enough. I agree with Josh Marshall: take this as a sign that the McCain campaign has abandoned an effort to compete
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Whigs and Tories, Jacobins and Fascists
Our political discourse is debauched, and the political terms we use on a daily basis and hear bandied about in the media have become detached from their history and root meanings. In my posts over the years I have tried to be careful about my uses of such terms as liberal, conservative, radical, reactionary, centrist,