This is a shrewd observation, though how calculated it was is not so clear. I think the Obama campaing responded as they did because they instinctively knew how this wildly publicized cover would be received in the heartland -- which is to say, without irony since few voters know the New Yorker is supposed be satirical. The rest of what you described just falls into place. But I think you've got it right. What worries is that we've had two presidential elections in which a careless MSM sabotaged the better candidate and many of us fear it could easily happen again. Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart hit the main point when he called out the MSM -- not the wingnuts - for perpetuating the falsities that the New Yorker was trying to satirize. This tells us something we need to know -- that the danger lies not with the deliberate perveyors of smears and bias, but with the civic irresponsiblity of the news media who think this is all a game of infotainment to be played at the public's expense.

Posted at July 16, 2008 4:15 PM in response to Surprise...The New Yorker Cover Snafu is Just Another Obama Silver Lining

One of the things that makes Virginia doable for Obama is that the Virginia GOP and its enablers have their heads in the sand. It's evident in the close race between two reactionary GOP candidates for the US Senate, ending up with former governor Jim Gilmore whom the Washington Post editorialized against at length yesterday. And it's evident today in the lead editorial of the Richmond Times-Dispatch which denies in its first statement that Virginia has gone purple and asserts that McCain will triumph. Everywhere you turn, Virginia's conservatives are unable to face reality and abandon their rigid and narrow ideology. Sadly, this could result in a failed special session of the state legislature later this month where Gov. Kaine is asking the General Assembly to agree on urgently needed transportation funding. The GOP is refusing to acknowledge the problems the state faces and may end up scuttling the session. But come November, Virginia voters should be clear that there's only one responsible political party in this state, and it's NOT their beloved GOP.

Posted at June 16, 2008 7:55 PM in response to Poll: Obama Just Edging McCain In Virginia

It's heartening that Chinese are feeling (and allowed to feel) solidarity with their fellow citizens in Sichuan. It's also encouraging that the government held a 3-day period of national mourning with the flag at half mast in Tiananmen Square -- the first time in the 59-year history of the PRC that the regime commemorated the suffering of ordinary citizens in this way. Would that the government in Beijing allowed their new-found humanity to include the many, many more citizens who lost their lives in past tragedies -- both natural and man-made -- with public accountability and apologies.
But this is a start.

Posted at June 9, 2008 5:24 PM in response to Just Say No to Pseudo Patriotic Email

What's with all the publicity about Zogby's polls? It looks like his extensive marketing efforts pay off, even with politically astute websites like TPM. He gets people talking even when his track record is indifferent or worse. His skills are in public relations and NOT in polling.

Posted at April 22, 2008 11:14 AM in response to In Final Zogby Tracking Poll, Hillary Leads By 10 In Pennsylvania

I believe there is only be one expalantion for the painful determination of Gonzales to remain in office and perjure himself: he's protecting the Bush-Cheney government from the many illegal and unethical acts they've committed, only a few of which are known. Whether impeachment would unearth their political depravities is a question. Probably not. Meanwhile, Gonzales is ready to do whatever it takes to protect his boss and deflect attention. Any replacement for him at this point would be too risky. Why else would someone of his intelligence humiliate himself like that? It makes no sense. His is the kind of loyalty that the Bush family has always demanded, though it's never before required this level of self-degradation.

Posted at July 31, 2007 7:55 AM in response to Not Yet, But Soon

As someone who has lived and traveled in East Asia for nearly 20 years, I take exception to comments here about the rest of world not sharing our "myths" or seeing the US merely as a materialist and imperialist power. For Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Filipinos and many others in this part of the world, there has been and continues to be admiration for the US mingled with confusion and sometimes contempt - especially in recent years. Yet families send their kids to school in the US, transplant at least one child there should things go awry at home, go there to work and send back their paychecks, seek asylum and sanctury from repression, etc. So whatever second thoughts we are having about our self-professed "values" and whatever disrepute we find ourselves in now, the virtures that Slaughter would like to revive and that many here disparage are a experiential reality to many people. Of course US is also seen as materialistic, imperialistic, and decadent. Our hyprocrisy is often too transparent, especially when our leaders boast about supporting democracy in every corner o the globe, etc. as GWB has often done. But it's not pointless or a mere psychological exercise to consider how to bring our words and actions into closer alignment and to measure more carefully how we use our considerable influence.

Posted at June 19, 2007 11:14 PM in response to American Exceptionalism by any other name...

Good posts. But how exactly is this supposed to work? We can only guess what Chinese workers want since they aren't allowed independent organizations and such trade unions as exist are political/management tools to control workers. Foreign investors flock to China not merely because of low wages, but because the workforce is docile and the government has been so eager to cooperate with investors in putting people to work. What mechanisms can change the terms of trade and investment? For now, it's got to be some kind of top-down pressure, which ain't gonna come from most corporate investors much less factory managers. Besides, its doubtful that most Chinese working class care much about free speech, etc., though they may gradually come to value the privilege of organizing real trade unions.

Posted at February 27, 2007 12:40 PM in response to Why Mexico is Not Enough

Ah.....your mentioning CapitalOne says it all.
Their slick media campaign nowithstanding, they're the worst.

Posted at January 30, 2007 6:23 PM in response to Mystery Credit Card Fees

Kurtz seldom rises to anything but a perfunctory balance when it comes to most of the burning issues of the day, and even that is rare. His notion of journalism seems to involve numbing himself to the moral stakes in public policy debates, seeing them as merely partisan affairs. On Iraq, he's as hopelessly mesmerized as anyone. He's one reason WaPo is another black hole in the MSM universe.

Posted at January 9, 2007 4:00 PM in response to Mistah Kurtz, He Wrong

An excellent question. However, responses here and elsewhere suggest that our national responsibilities can be reduced to a decision whether to keep troops in Iraq and if so, how many for how long. That's ducking the larger moral issue. Our continued military involvement is an important and urgent policy debate. But it does not equate to our moral burden in this fiasco and or substitute for a more constructive and engaged policy toward the region over the longer term. Whatever the military and political outcome of the current crisis, I'd like to hear some proposals for how we can redeem ourselves, if that's the right expression, perhaps with some far-sighted mechanisms for stabilizing the ethnic and political conflicts, trade preferences, or other bi-lateral, mutli-lateral, trans-national initiatives that may have worked elsewhere in the world. Surely some ingenious proposals along these lines could help salvage this catastrophe or maybe mitigate its worst consequences. It's probably asking too much for official Washington to be looking at such things right now, but surely we need not be bound by their myopia.

Posted at December 9, 2006 1:36 PM in response to A Question for Debate