Month: December 2007
-
Headline of the day
“World of Warcraft Gamers Plan Avatar March for Ron Paul”. For more, see this site, which includes some fantastic graphics: Mike Huckabee better watch out…
-
The incoherent John McCain
Paul Krugman on the logical incoherence of John McCain’s explanation of his record on tax cuts: McCain now says that he supports making the Bush tax cuts permanent. Not only that: he’s become a convert to crude supply-side economics, claiming that cutting taxes actually increases revenues. That’s an assertion even Bush administration officials concede is
-
Bloomberg: No constituency, no rationale
The Washington Post and New York Times report on the group of old, increasingly irrelevant moderates who seem to want to draft Michael Bloomberg for a “national unity” government. There’s a serious problem, however. Neither Bloomberg nor the people trying to draft him have a national constituency or an actual issue-based rationale for running. As
-
TNR’s theater critic mocks Hillary
The only thing worse than journalists pretending to be theater critics is to have actual theater critics writing about politics (see Rich, Frank). The latest perpetrator is TNR’s theater critic, who just posted this nonsense on The Plank: In more cheerful news for Hillary, whatever time she’s been spending focus-grouping her laugh lately is paying
-
Tim Russert’s Ron Paul interview
I missed it, but my friend and former Spinsanity co-editor Ben Fritz points out that Tim Russert, who is legendary for his preparation, apparently asked some pretty inane questions of Ron Paul. My favorite is this exchange: MR. RUSSERT: You say you’re a strict constructionist of the Constitution, and yet you want to amend the
-
NYT reviews Liberal Fascism
Things I don’t understand: (1) Who decided it was a good idea to waste a New York Times review on Liberal Fascism? (2) David Oshinsky’s highly charitable review, which claims “what distinguishes Goldberg from the Sean Hannitys and Michael Savages is a witty intelligence that deals in ideas as well as insults — no mean
-
John McCain on Lebanon 1983
Let me echo Matthew Yglesias and suggest that John McCain’s surge in the polls is a good reason to pick up Matt Welch’s McCain: The Myth of a Maverick. While I’m not sure I buy all of Welch’s analysis of McCain’s personality, the book is a valuable compendium of everything unflattering in his background, much
-
Post-Bhutto nitpicking of Huckabee
Saturday’s New York Times features two particularly insipid articles critiquing candidates’ reactions to the Bhutto assassination. Here’s the nut graf of the primary story by Patrick Healy: The Bhutto assassination is one of those rare things in a presidential race — an unscripted, unexpected moment that lays bare a candidate’s leadership qualities and geopolitical smarts.
-
Jonathan Weisman on the “Fair Tax”
Like many journalists, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Weisman may sometimes pull his punches when reporting on partisan disputes over economic policy, but when both sides agree something is a bad idea, watch out. Check out his lede for a story on Mike Huckabee’s “Fair Tax”: To former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, supporting a national retail
-
Elites miss the price of bipartisanship
In the course of his lament at the lack of bipartisanship in Washington, Evan Thomas says things were not as bad at mid-century: [T]he middle of the 20th century was a bit better on the question of cooperation. Back then the political parties tried to be big tents. The Democrats numbered conservative Southerners as well