Politics
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Game Change (Updated)
I just saw the movie–was vaguely aware of it when it first came out, but didn't have HBO. But after watching it, found this remarkable video of Steve Schmidt, one of McCain's key strategists in the 2008 campaign. Woody Harrelson plays him in the movie and Julianne Moore plays Palin. Well worth watching if you
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It’s the Nineties Again
Obama's bad week is hardly worth commenting on except to point out that the only criticism of the administration that gets any traction in the corporate media is the criticism from the Right. The Ben Ghazi thing is all smoke, the IRS thing is about an overwhelmed bureaucracy, and the subpoenaing of the AP phone
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The Futility of Bi-Partisanship
Former congressman Tom Allen on the futility of trying to govern from a bipartisan center: Our debates over particular budget and tax policies, health care, global warming or Iraq were not driven by the details of the legislation. Differences over health care reform became more about the role of government than the critical health care
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Finding the Balance between Centralization and Localism I
I was listening to something the other day, and the guy was making a point I had never considered. Empires for the most part, whether ancient or modern, are not particularly intrusive regarding local cultures and customs. Empires more often than not live with local cultural pluralism so long as locals pay their taxes and
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The Bully Pulpit and Beltway Paralyis
From Ezra Klein in the New Yorker: This, Edwards says, is the reality facing modern Presidents, and one they would do well to accommodate. “In a rational world, strategies for governing should match the opportunities to be exploited,” he writes. “Barack Obama is only the latest in a long line of presidents who have not
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How the Beltway Media Thinks
From Dan Froomkin's article on Ornstein and Mann: Most reporters, however — including many widely admired for their intelligence and aggressive reporting — simply refused to blame one side more than the other. Mann said he was struck in conversations with journalists by how influenced they were by the heavily funded movement to promote a
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Lest We Forget
Clinton had campaigned on a pledge to raise taxes on high incomes, arguing that the affluent had disproportionately benefited from the prosperity of the ‘80s and that the middle class had been left behind. As president, he followed through, pushing for the creation of new 36 and 39.6 tax brackets for high-income earners. He got
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Bruce Bartlett on ‘Epistemic Closure’
In The American Conservative: A couple of weeks before the 2004 election, Suskind wrote a long article for the New York Times Magazine that quoted some of my comments to him that were highly critical of Bush and the drift of Republican policy. The article is best remembered for his quote from an anonymous White House official dismissing critics
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Calling Out Andrew Cuomo
And if Republicans get their majority, with the tacit support of Cuomo, the governor will have once again shown that he is not the progressive figure he will likely try to sell himself as if he runs for president. His tenure so far has been marked by flashy liberal victories on issues like gay marriage,
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Quote of the Day: Peter Kuznick
Americans were very hostile to Britain until the 20th century, till the World War I period, because that was the empire, and we were consciously anti-imperial. John Quincy Adams has a great speech that he made on July 4, 1819, in which he says we don’t go forth in search of foreign monsters to destroy.