Politics
One of the defenses of John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate is that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were each also in their 40s and relatively inexperienced when running for President. The problem with that defense is that Clinton and Obama each prepared for
Politics
To answer the question asked by that Hillary Clinton commercial… Of Obama and McCain, Obama is the one I would want to answer that 3am telephone call at the White House. Obama has the even temperament, keen intelligence, and mental vigor that I would want a leader to have when
Politics
1. The GOP is focusing on tearing down Obama rather than building up McCain. 2. To the extent that the GOP does talk about McCain, the talk rarely refers to anything he has done in the last 35 years. 3. The Democratic National Convention was well-managed, if somewhat boring. 4.
History
Tonight's Democratic National Convention lineup is scheduled to include Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy. To continue the theme: * Tuesday night will have Walter Mondale and Gary Hart * Wednesday night will have Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson * Thursday night will have Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown
Books
In the post immediately below, I note how good British commentaries on the United States can be. One example: Henry Fairlie was a British journalist who worked in the United States from the mid-1960s until his death in 1990. If you like American political history and ever have the opportunity
Politics
People who accept positions with the federal government are supposed to serve the American people. According to a report by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice (as relayed by the blog Talking Points Memo), the Gonzales Justice Department had something more specific in mind when
History
Many warbloggers and other assorted Iraq-war supporters fancy themselves to be followers of Winston Churchill. And one of the most widely read biographies of Churchill is the two-volume hagiography by William Manchester. (As a boy, I read the first volume. For boys, it's a good history.) I had
Politics
An interesting post-midterm wrapup by Rolling Stone contained this questionable assertion by David Gergen: Voters don't want a whole series of confrontations over the next two years. […] Democrats have got to be willing to work with the administration […] That's going to be very hard for them
Politics
Dear Senator Smith, this assessment "The modern GOP -- or, more specifically, the axis of '70s campus Republicans now running it -- really is just a criminal enterprise disguised as a political party. "Dirty tricks, large and small, are a sorry fact of life in American politics,
Intellect
A self-described leftist writing in to Andrew Sullivan summed it up well: [Y]ou see classic conservatism as the defense of liberty from brutality through doubt, caution, common sense and rigorous self-examination[.]
Politics
The right wing in America is stuck with the paradox of holding a philosophy of "conserving" and an actual order it does not want to conserve. It keeps trying to create something new it might think worthy, someday, of conserving. Confessions of a Conservative
Politics
There is a Multnomah County library levy on this year's November ballot. When a library levy was last on the ballot (November 2002), there was a decided split in who supported it. In the ten precincts that would be John Kerry's best two years later, 73.