We've moved into the realm of madness here, Chris. Really. I think someone has to point out how we've slid down the slippery slope with Hillary, still acting as we are, as if the whole thing is somehow just a bit extreme but reasonable.

Posted at June 1, 2008 8:02 PM in response to Puerto Rico Turnout

Maybe the viewers didn't get the message...just identified the Republican's name and kind of snapped their fingers and tapped their toes. Maybe the Democrat (whose name you should have mentioned, which I don't remember either) should come up with a catchier, less turgid response.

Posted at May 21, 2008 1:42 PM in response to Republican Leading In Key Missouri House Race

Actually, I'm not attacking the voters so much as saying Hillary Clinton played to their darker side. We all have darker sides. I think demographic characteristics in West Virginia are fairly widely shared, and they are not characteristics which make you prone to vote for an educated black (or half-black)man. In fact, I think group psychology plays a big role here, and it would be difficult to challenge community norms. I don't think Obama spent more time there because, especially since Hillary was playing to the lowest common denominator, it would have been very hard to come in and challenge her given the timing and the context. I do think, with more time, you might be able to.

Posted at May 14, 2008 2:01 PM in response to Should Hillary be Proud?

I used to.

Posted at May 5, 2008 2:03 PM in response to Hillary: The Greatest Love of All

Krugman's economics are the other side of the same pie as the conservatives. He's a growth-is-good, globalization is good ideologue, too, though much easier to take because he isn't mean like the neocons. However, he often seems divorced from human reality, not to mention human beings. His aggressive advocacy for Clinton's health care policy seems to ignore everything and everyone BUT the narrow focus of the mandate. He doesn't even take into consideration the interchange between president and congress in getting policy transformed into reality, let alone consider whether Hillary is the right person to be leading.

It really is time to consider who might be flexible in facing upcoming problems: who will be able, as they say, to think outside the box.

We need people who aren't on one side of the same pie, especially if the pie has, excuse the lousy metaphor, a glass-topped wall down the middle. We need someone willing to stand outside the pie and take what's good in it, but not be confined to it.

Posted at May 2, 2008 3:56 PM in response to Time to Win the War of Ideas--Finally

It seems we are doing terrible damage to our country by labeling everything that does not fit rigid standards of political correctness unpatriotic. What is patriotism in the U.S. supposed to mean? Shouldn't it mean celebrating our diversity, ethnic, religious, political, and the opportunity of diverse people to find a life here? Shouldn't it be freedom to speak our minds? Shouldn't we have some freedom of assembly? Shouldn't we have the right to criticize the country and be proud of that right? Shouldn't we be celebrating the ability to draw from diverse sources for our ideas? Shouldn't it be freedom from small-minded measures of our patriotism?

Shouldn't anyone born in the United States be able to have a dream of being President one day, based on his abilities and not denied because of race or the visceral discomfort of others based on prejudices and stereotypes?

Shouldn't we be able to be proud of ourselves because we can see past our own comfort zone?

Posted at April 24, 2008 5:33 PM in response to The Swiftboating Begins

What's left out in the comparisons to McGoven is that Obama has charisma in spades, something McGovern didn't have an ounce of. Democratic candidates have long had a problem trying to prove opponents' criticisms aren't true. Obama needs to stop doing that. He's an elegant, well-educated, articulate, intelligent, charismatic candidate who can move people to tears. PLUS he understands policy! Maybe he should diss Clinton -- say what she is: an aging, slightly overweight woman with so much ambition she can't keep herself honest. She plays on fears instead of hopes. Hope is what keeps us going. Fears cause us to vote for demagogues and worse. And after he says that, brush off all the garbage she distracts him with -- there she goes again -- and scold the press (gently and with humor) for distracting us from the enormous problems we need to be addressing.

Posted at April 23, 2008 8:37 PM in response to Obama and McGovern

Wright is not attempting to influence foreign policy, nor has he ever overtly tried to influence voters. He has never talked about nor caused his followers to look forward to the Final Days, nor to vote for politicians who might hasten them. Wright does not make megabucks off sleazy merchandise nor does he make a grandiose living off hucksterism.

Posted at March 23, 2008 11:49 AM in response to Get off Wright, Follow Hagee

Wright is not attempting to influence foreign policy, nor has he ever overtly tried to influence voters. He has never talked about nor caused his followers to look forward to the Final Days, nor to vote for politicians who might hasten them. Wright does not make megabucks off sleazy merchandise nor does he make a grandiose living off hucksterism.

Posted at March 23, 2008 11:47 AM in response to Get off Wright, Follow Hagee