Politics

  • Fathers & Sons

    Interesting piece in he local paper by Johann Hari about Obama's and McCain's relationship with their fathers: The Hillary-dam has finally burst, so now oceans of newsprint are being spilled over the long-delayed Republican vs. Democrat showdown. But as we simplistically blather about the candidates' race and age we seem to be ignoring the best

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  • George Will’s Conservative Faith

    George Will has been and promoting his latest book collection of his columns. I can't say I'm a regular reader of his columns, but I found a couple of things he said on Colbert and Charlie Rose earlier this week interesting as indicative of a kind of conservatism that I find respectable (as opposed to

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  • Goodbye to the Clintons

    I just read Digby's apologia for Hillary, and I have to say I have a hard time understanding why anybody who thinks of him or herself as a progressive Democrat can defend the Clintons.  I know Digby voted for Obama in the California primary, but when push comes to shove she's a Dem loyalist more

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  • Now It Begins

    Despite the media focus on Clinton and the ungraciousness of her speech last night–Did we expect anything else?–Obama should feel no pressure to give in to her demands–at least in the short run. The Clintons want to prove to Obama that politics isn't just about words, it's about dealing with self-absorbed jerks like them. So that's

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  • Incompetence, Corruption, and Intellectual Dishonesty

    I finally had some time to watch HBO's "Recount" last night, and it's remarkable how the events of November and December 2000 were predictive of the presidency we got. From the incompetence and corruption on the state & county level to the intellectual dishonesty at the Supreme Court. Incompetence, corruption, intellectual dishonesty. That's pretty much

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  • Quote of the Day: Scott McClellan

    If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq. The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months

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  • Future of the Dems: Changing the Nation’s Mood

    I might be proved wrong, but as suggested in my last post, I think we have every reason to be think that Obama will be our president by this time next year. The current polling is irrelevant. Obama is so far superior to McCain by every metric and with the Republican Party in such shambles

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  • Future of the GOP

    There are several indicators that the country has finally caught on to the GOP con.  It would be nice to think that the election in the Fall could in a very real way be an overwhelming rejection of everything that the GOP has come to stand for. If we lived in a sane political reality,

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  • Power and Change

    Now that Obama’s election is looking more likely, my thoughts are moving toward the question whether, in fact, he can make a difference. The strong support for Hillary among Democrats is very potent evidence that almost half of rank and file Democrats either don’t have a clue how power works in this country, or if

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  • The Race Card

    If there was any doubt she was playing it since South Carolina, it should now be dispelled.  This woman is made rabid by her obsession with power: In a jaw-dropping interview in USA Today on Thursday, she said, "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on." As evidence she cited an

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