I know, I know…

27 August 2008, 2251 EDT

The convention is so much kabuki theater, but a few minutes ago the Democrats nominated the first African-American major-party candidate for President of the United States… on a motion by a woman who nearly became the first female major-party candidate for President of the United States.

I think we can all agree that, whatever our politics, this is a pretty amazing day in the history of the United State of America.

… But I don’t need every anchor and network consultant to bloviate endlessly about that. What’s the point of covering a convention if most of what you’re going to do is to cover your &#!* self?

Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.