Just kidding. Apparently some Obama voter may have shifted her residency from Florida to New York, despite intending to move back to New York. Brian Faughnan of Red State, however, insinuates that this is evidence of a significant, concerted effort by Obama supporters...
David Brooks always styled himself as a member of the conservative intellectual vanguard. He would much rather be an observer of "real people" than to actually dirty his hands at playing milkmaid in...
Yesterday I wrote in an email to a conservative blogger that I thought that McCain still had a fighting chance. I don't think so any more. I suppose enough slime might make this thing close. An al...
My side of the blogsphere seems to think the video of a McCain supporter mouthing off about socialists and hoodlums is an indictment of McCain himself.When I watch the video, I see McCain affirming...
I'm watching PBS coverage of the 2008 Democratic Convention. In response to Bill Clinton's line about how the world is more impressed by the power of the United States' example than the example of its power, Brooks quipped (I paraphrase): "I don't think Vladimir Putin or Ahmadinejad will be impressed by our example."But that completely misses the point. The wager of liberal internationalism is that the United States can better achieve its objectives by building strong alliances through multilateral cooperation. The aim isn't to "impress" people like Ahmadinejad, but to impress the leaders we...
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...
I want to disagree with Dan (who is very insightful in these matters) slightly here. I want to more strongly disagree with all the talking heads on CNN (who are not as smart as Dan), who have been decrying the lack of "red meat" in the convention speeches going after McCain and Bush.First off, there is plenty of Red Meat available-- it just happens to come from speakers who are talking when Anderson Cooper and Paul Begala are busy discussing how bored they are on-air.However, these speeches don't form the national message, bringing us to Dan's insight. I think, though, that there is an...
Clinton gave a great speech. Lots of commentators say that it hurt the Republicans. But they're wrong; this was a tactical victory, not a strategic one.The Republicans won the last two days... the meta narrative was about Democratic unity, and not about the Democrats' agenda or their critiques of McCain.Image source: MSNBC
I would run a series of ads called "Friends." Each would begin with rapid cuts of McCain repeating his "My Friends" catchphrase. Then the screen would ominously fade to black, and the voice talent would read "Just who are McCain's friends, anyway?" The first add would feature of lobbyists in his campaign. The second would feature "people who brought you the Iraq War." The ads would conclude: "John McCain: his friends... are no friends of ours." Rinse, lather, repeat. It wouldn't be hard to get plenty of clips. This is from one speech: The strategy of course, is to create a negative...
Go to any major left-wing website, and you'll find an lengthy chorus of commentators ranting against Harry Reid for his failure to kick Lieberman out of the Democratic caucus. "Lieberman's speaking at the Republican convention!" they say. "He's a shill for some of McCain's worst attacks on Obama!" they exclaim. "The Democrats won't need him to retain the majority in the next Senate!"As Theda Skocpol puts it:I am sorry, but this is ridiculous. Lieberman has the Dems where he wants them. Lieberman knows -- and has known for a long time -- that he has no future if Obama wins. If McCain wins, by...
Two good articles on the US role in Georgia. The first, by Helene Cooper and Thom Shanker of the New York Times: "After Mixed U.S. Messages, a War Erupted in Georgia."One month ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia, for a high-profile visit that was planned to accomplish two very different goals.During a private dinner on July 9, Ms. Rice’s aides say, she warned President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia not to get into a military conflict with Russia that Georgia could not win. “She told him, in no uncertain terms, that he had to put a non-use of force pledge on...
Wander around the political blogsphere and chances are, at any given moment, you'll find partisans of all stripes bravely stripping away the deceit of their rivals. Indeed, despite the best efforts of the "MSM" to mislead us all, the bloggers will uncover the facts. In 2004 they poured over maps of the Mekong Delta to prove Kerry's falsehoods. They blustered about partisan weighting to prove that Bush was really behind in the polls. They continue their efforts in this cycle. Even as we speak (to take but one example), fearless keyboard detectives will reveal the frightening truth about...