Barack Obama And The Supertanker Of State
In response to my recent post on what I called Obama 2012’s rather limited ambitions, valued reader CK MacLeod wrote the following. My emphasis: …look at “the Reagan Era” from the perspective of a...
Author: Elias Isquith
Troubleshooting Inequality
In the past quarter-year or so, the economic news for the United States has been unpredictable. The end of 2011 and the very beginning of 2012 brought reports of sustained if not extraordinary growth,...
Characters And Records: Defining The President In 2012
Hey, wow, it’s Joe Klein and he’s being almost completely right about something:
The Meaning Of Santorum
The Atlantic‘s David A. Graham thinks there are three major ways in which the now-suspended Santorum campaign diminished Mitt Romney’s chances of besting the President: 1. He has pulled Romney to the right on key...
Paul Ryan Strikes Again: The Reihan Salam Edition
Reihan Salam is, best as I can tell, the smartest right-wing pundit of his generation. He also seems, by and large, to be a decent guy. He’s not especially vitriolic or militant and he...
The Future Is Now: The Birth Of The American Wasteland
A really interesting piece from the Times‘ Binyamin Appelbaum focuses on how parts of the country where the housing bubble was the most pronounced — and where there was historically nowhere near the same...
The Ultimate Victory, The Final Defeat
Corey Robin was interviewed by David Johnson for the Boston Review, and at the very end the two of them got to talking about the GOP primary. At first, Robin repeated an argument I’ve heard...
If The Supreme Court Kills Obamacare, You Can Keep Your Silver Lining
Ed Kilgore, playing one my least favorite versions of What If since “Vice President Palin” was a less-than-remote possibility, guesses at how a nixing of Obamacare by the SCOTUS would affect this year’s elections:
Jay Nordlinger Doesn’t Care About Black People
Contrary to what I imagine every non-wingnut first thought upon reading it, this piece was not actually written by Stephen Colbert [emphasis mine]: Every once in a while, something will happen that makes me think, “Oh,...
Reliving The Nightmare: The Washington Post Revisits The Grand Bargain
A new blockbuster report from The Washington Post serves as yet another retrospective on the failed Grand Bargain debt-ceiling negotiations of last summer, despite this being a period of our history that most Americans...
Iran, Israel, And Wannabe Masters Of War
There’s a long and honorable legacy in the Jewish tradition of universalism, humanity, pacifism, and a generally forward-thinking, enlightened worldview. Of this legacy, Philip Klein of The Washington Examiner is not an heir; and...
What Is Welfare For?
Writing over at The New Inquiry, Ned Resnikoff asks the Left to think a little more concretely about what it means to fetishize, as most have during the Great Recession, jobs qua jobs. Using...
Is The Republican Primary George McGovern’s Fault?
Weekly Standard‘s Jay Cost is bemoaning the dissolution of the old, pre-McGovern system of Party organization, when both Parties, were run by a hierarchical network of wise men and power brokers. Ever since the...
Is “Israel First” The Worst?
Responding to this Spencer Ackerman piece in Tablet, in which the Wired.com senior writer comes down on the anti- side of the ongoing controversy over the phrase “Israel-Firsters,” Freddie has a spot-on summary of...
The More The GOP Contenders Debate, The More They Stay The Same
Once Wolf Blitzer had, remarkably, found a way to further insult the intelligence of his audience — asking the candidates why their wives would be the best First Lady* — I figured it was...
David Frum Vs. The Liberal Media
As Peter Hart of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting noticed, Newsweek, liberal rag that it is, has now subjected its readership to not one but two essays on the virtues of President Obama by...
Win Or Lose In 2012, Obama’s Got No Class
Noting that, for the first time in a generation, inequality will be a major theme of a US Presidential election, Michael Cohen writes how the result in November may establish a new conventional wisdom...
The Beginning Of The End Of The War On Drugs?
As E.D. notes, this is good to see: Kain is skeptical, however, that we’ll see other politicians follow Christie’s lead on this one and embrace a more rational policy towards non-violent drug offenders: It’s...
Bain: Makes a Man Take Things Over
Last night, I watched the anti-Romney 30-minute “documentary” from a Gingrich Super PAC, “King of Bain,” and I must say that — save the periodic forays into lowest-common denominator xenophobia — one would think...
Is Social Mobility Overrated?
A pretty good piece in the New York Times today about social mobility in America or, more accurately, the lack thereof. While the article cites the same studies and charts about European vs. American...
