Month: May 2006
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Overstating the media’s importance
I’m sick of people elevating the media into the central force in American politics. The Note, an idiotic arbiter of media conventional wisdom if there ever was one, suggests today that the impending departure of Associated Press chief political writer “will change the contours of the 2006 and 2008 elections in ways that can now
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New comment policy
Rather than manually approving every comment, which is time-consuming and slows down discussion, I have turned on a Typepad feature that requires commenters to verify that they aren’t a spambot before their comments can be posted. I still reserve the right to delete comments that are off-topic, inflammatory or otherwise inappropriate. (Trackbacks will still be
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Democrats still have cultural problems
Josh Marshall is angry about Jeffrey Goldberg’s story in the latest issue of the New Yorker on the state of the Democratic Party and so am I, but for very different reasons. Marshall thinks the article is cliche-ridden and out of touch with what’s really going on in the party. Maybe so, but the message
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Wall Street Journal agitprop on “Team B”
In an editorial about new CIA director General Michael Hayden today, the Wall Street Journal editorial board slips in some revisionist history on “Team B,” the outside team brought in to provide an alternative analysis of the Soviet threat: The CIA’s Iraq mistakes have been amply documented. But the agency’s career analysts also got their
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Jonathan Chait on the Hillary backlash
Via Andrew Sullivan, Jon Chait has a perfect analysis of Hillary Clinton’s problems in the LA Times: It appears the grand Clinton strategy is backfiring. As a prospective national candidate, she has two great vulnerabilities. First, many voters think she’s too liberal. Second, many voters also see her as cold, calculating and unlikable. Her response
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Nancy Pelosi’s lioness metaphor
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is popularizing a weird metaphor to make Democratic women seem tougher on national security. In the latest New Yorker, Pelosi is quoted as follows: I’m a mom. I have five children, and I have five grandchildren. I always say to people, ‘Think lioness.’ This is how Democrats are. You threaten
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George Allen’s race problem is more than personal
Media Matters reports that MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews downplayed Senator George Allen’s public and private displays of the Confederate flag on Wednesday, comparing them to a Democrat wearing a Che Guevara or Karl Marx shirt during their youth. But as the New Republic pointed out, “Allen has either displayed the flag–on himself, his car,
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John McCain’s solution to the crisis in Iraq
The John McCain press infatuation has got to stop. Check out this “straight talk,” which was reported breathlessly by the New York Observer: For all the national attention surrounding John McCain’s two highly anticipated, protest-ridden commencement speeches in New York last week, the Senator actually saved some of his best material for the crowd that
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Defense leaks about Duke lacrosse evidence
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong turned over a mountain of evidence to the accused lacrosse players’ defense team, and they promptly began leaking it to the media. Here’s a roundup of the major claims that are being circulated, which should be interpreted cautiously given their source: (1) The accuser allegedly claimed the other dancer witnessed
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The bogus GOP “gas calculator”
Yesterday, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman sent an email to supporters (PDF) with the subject line “The Democrat Plan: $3.98 Gas, $955 More Per Year at the Pump.” The email refers repeatedly to what “Democrats offer,” “the Democrat’s (sic) energy proposals,” “how much more Democrats want you to pay at the pump,” “how much more Democrats