- : NY
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- : liberal
- : Dem
Obama foreign policy slogan: A cool head, and a steady hand on the trigger
I hope that Obama makes McCain's inclination toward military confrontation a major issue. McCain's inclination is well-documented. So is his temper and his impetuous nature. I think that even many of McCain's backers will be worried about this, if it...more »
Posted on August 13, 2008 1:00 PM
Jon Stewart: unaccountably stupid (about cartoons, anyway)
Stewart has repeatedly taken the view that it doesn't matter what people say/write/draw/etc., so long as they might argue that it was just a joke, just art, just pop culture, or whatever. So of course he criticizes people for getting all...more »
Posted on July 17, 2008 7:27 AM
good year for ideological masturbation
Because the real alternatives are so good (because McCain is so close a second-place to Obama);Because the stakes are so small (because globally catastrophic climate change, smart and effective national security, officially codified torture, a counterproductive, stupid, and feckless war, and...more »
Posted on July 15, 2008 10:00 PM
Obama should personally distinguish war heroism from policy judgment
The press' love for McCain seems likely to be as big a factor as we thought it would be. I think the only way there's a chance of the press adopting anything like neutrality is if Obama personally distinguishes between...more »
Posted on July 5, 2008 1:22 AM
It's the FISA flip-flop that's making people suspect an Iraq-war flip-flop
I hope Obama will take a lesson from this. Yes, any adult understands that you can't say with absolute certainty what you will do in Iraq a year from now. Something big might happen to make your firm intentions unwise...more »
Posted on July 3, 2008 10:02 PM
Why are (some) Hillary supporters mad at Obama?
l understand why some Obama supporters are angry at Hillary -- for talking up McCain over Obama, for flirting with the idea of relying on superdelegates to overcome the results of the voting, for stoking the Jeremiah Wright story. I...more »
Posted on March 26, 2008 7:19 AM
DT's Plan B
<p>I hope DT cools down between now and November. His/her list of grievances against Obama is a highly tendentious characterization of issues that are at best debatable and on which a dispassionate observer would find corresponding grievances against Clinton. (Honestly,...more »
Posted on March 22, 2008 10:05 AM
Obama is free to criticize honestly and fairly
The consensus seems to be that Obama is in a box because he has presented himself as being above politics as usual, and doing so prevents him from "going negative" on Clinton, which he needs to do. I don't think...more »
Posted on March 7, 2008 8:31 PM
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I was frustrated at the time it took for Obama to hit back at McCain, but I think now that Obama was just giving McCain time to dig himself in. Not only did McCain get deep into negative attacks that were stupid (tires!), false (troops and cameras!), and at least arguably racist (white girls!) -- but the press actually pushed back a little on all three points. (So not only did it erode McCain's base a little, but it will also limit McCain's freedom to make underhanded attacks in the future.) Then Obama started hitting back, and his hits have been hard, fair, and light-hearted. Time will tell, but I think Obama has played this just about perfectly.
Posted at August 11, 2008 10:03 AM in response to Election Central Morning Roundup
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So his political career is over. That's just the way it works now.
But I wish we could go back to the old rule that private lives are private, unless a law was broken. Maybe mere hypocrisy should be enough to warrant exposing a person's private life. But we're way beyond that.
By 2012, candidates will have to fill out questionnaires on their sex practices. By 2016, there'll be reality-show tv's in their bedrooms and bathrooms.
Posted at August 8, 2008 3:58 PM in response to ABC: Edwards Admits Affair
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I think a big part of the reason for the rightward drift of the Dems is just that they keep losing. Over the last 20 years or so, most of the DC Dems seem to have become convinced that the only way to win is to move to the right. I think that if McCain wins this election, that will dramatically increase the belief among Dems that unless they are to the right of Rush Limbaugh on national security matters, they will never regain the presidency and that their hold on Congress will be tenuous. Beating bad Dems in primaries (or just scaring them with strong challengers) is one thing. Losing a general election (especially this one) is quite another.
I'm to the left of Obama on a number of points, but for many reasons I think it is urgently necessary that he, not McCain, become the next president. I think that if McCain wins, then in many ways we are fucked.
Repeating myself, I think that a healthy amount of criticism of Obama is good. I just think that we should keep in mind the broader context and the full set of priorities, and modulate the tone and volume of criticism accordingly.
Posted at July 17, 2008 11:41 AM in response to good year for partisan manipulation
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Unless you're using "authoritarian" pretty lightly, it is quite unlikely that Obama -- even absent any pressure at all from the left -- would be an authoritarian president.
But even taking your improbable premise, supporting him in becoming a winning but authoritarian president would still matter if he would be less authoritarian than the alternative.
Again assuming your premise (which I think is way off), I know some folks find it tempting to say that the difference between more and less authoritarian is not meaningful to them. I had hoped that Nader's refrain that there was no meaningful difference between Gore and Bush, and the later history, would have diminished the appetite for such proclamations.
Posted at July 17, 2008 10:50 AM in response to good year for partisan manipulation
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Tom Toles' cartoon from yesterday is on point:
Posted at July 17, 2008 10:36 AM in response to Jon Stewart: unaccountably stupid (about cartoons, anyway)
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Yes, Jon's point was that it was just a joke, and therefore nothing to get worked up about. And yes, the artist's goal was to ridicule -- not promote -- the slander of Obama.
But jokes or novels or tv shows or video games can be harmful because of their effect on how people think, feel, and act. Do folks here really disagree on that point?
Posted at July 17, 2008 10:35 AM in response to Jon Stewart: unaccountably stupid (about cartoons, anyway)
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Who is trying to put irony off limits? Or jokes? My point was simply that a work is not -- as Stewart seems to think -- lifted above criticism, is not rendered harmless, simply because it was meant as a joke or as satire or as art or as entertainment.
If your point is in part that we shouldn't bother criticizing things that are certain to continue, then .... I just don't get that attitude.
Posted at July 17, 2008 10:25 AM in response to Jon Stewart: unaccountably stupid (about cartoons, anyway)
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You're making a distinction Stewart didn't make. For Stewart, the reason not to get worked up about the cartoon was not that it was an attempt at satire, but that it was a cartoon.
I agree that there are hugely important distinctions between the Nazi cartoons and the New Yorker cartoon. But for Stewart, the element that lifts a work about criticism is simply that it's a cartoon.
Perhaps I'm not reading his comments generously enough, but I've heard him take the view several times that one shouldn't get worked up about vile content in tv shows or video games, etc. -- simply because they are mere tv shows or video games. I think Stewart meant what he said, and I find it unaccountably stupid.
Posted at July 17, 2008 10:11 AM in response to Jon Stewart: unaccountably stupid (about cartoons, anyway)
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On the presidential race, which is the most important issue, the choice is between Obama and McCain. It's good to keep pressure on Obama, so that he will be a better president -- so long as what we do doesn't reduce the chances of his being elected. It doesn't matter if we pressure him to be a purer, but losing, candidate.
I have no problem with criticizing Obama within those bounds. I don't like cult of personality, and I think we're citizens, not cogs in a PR machine. It's a question of balance and judgment, and it seems to me that some folks around here seem to have lost sight of the overriding fact that we need Obama to be president.
As for Congress: God knows we have some lousy Dems. The biggest opportunity to get better ones -- and to improve the ones we've got -- is with primary challenges.
Posted at July 17, 2008 7:40 AM in response to good year for partisan manipulation
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Not humorless. A girly man.
Posted at July 17, 2008 6:59 AM in response to Obama's Supposed Lack of a Sense of Humor
