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Slow-Motion Apocalypse
(Revised 10/5 am) One of the most bizarre aspects about what we're going through as a nation now is how little our sense of normalcy has been affected by what is happening. Sure, people are worried about this and that, but people are always worried about this and that. Nothing in any deeply felt way is…
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Once Again, Scales Fall from Sullivan’s Eyes (Updates 1 & 2)
But he's a barometer of sorts for those Tory moderates skirting the edges of Whiggery who are bright enough and well-informed enough to understand what's really going on, but won't until overwhelming evidence forces them to: For me, this surreal moment – like the entire surrealism of the past ten days – is not really…
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Obama Gameplan: Make It about Issues
Good luck with that. That's how it appears based on what we've seen and on what he said during the interview with Olbermann last night, which I thought in general was pretty weak–he seemed tired and unfocused, too carefully choosing his words, too abstract, too bogged down in details, struggling to say what he means…
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Seeking a Center-Left, Main-Street Politics
Not so easy. Digby this morning presents a fair and thoughtful presentation of the Tom Frank dilemma: I had one of those Tom Friedmanesque taxicab moments today on my way to the airport in Austin. My driver was a very talkative African American guy from New Orleans who had no idea I was in town…
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Saving the American Idea
In June I put up a post entitled “Integrity and Compromise” in which I talked about how the Beltway system defeats most politicians who enter into it, and how compromise has become a word that basically describes that defeat. At the end I wrote: The point I want to make here is that when people…
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28-69 (Updated)
Clinton was one of the 28, Obama one of the 69 I have to say than that whatever enthusiasm I felt for Obama’s candidacy has been reduced by about 90%. I have not heard one argument on this issue that even begins to present a public interest argument that justifies supporting this bill.There are some…
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Boilerplate Reporting (Updated)
I got a good laugh last night when I read this Time piece explaining the reasoning behind Nancy Pelosi's support for the FISA "compromise." It's as if there's a boilerplate form for the writing of such articles–like a mad libs. The story is already written–just plug in the word or phrase that fits for today's…
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Last Word on Hillary
I hope. Rebecca Traister in Salon, who voted for Hillary, sees her pretty much the way I do: The truth is, whether you have a life-size poster of her on the wall or the Hillary nutcracker sitting on your bedside table, you cannot help admitting: Clinton and her ever-lovin' husband are figures too delicious to…
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Two Speeches
For the record, Obama's acceptance Speech: And for a laugh, a review of McCain's edited over at TPM: Harold Ford, by the way, another DLC Dem.
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Dispositional Politics
Rick Perlstein at TPM Cafe Book Club: A big part of my approach to understanding political identity is dispositional: my sense that "right" and "left" are fundamental, and perhaps permanent, ways of being in the world, not a mere list of policy positions; that, as William Gilbert of Gillbert and Sullivan wrote in his libretto…