Uncategorized
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Norman Podhoretz: “What’s a Kurd, anyway?”
Another reason to be thankful for the collapse of Rudy Giuliani’s potentially disastrous presidential campaign: Nor were neoconservative ideologues—who had the most-elaborate visions of a liberal, democratic Iraq—interested in the Kurdish cause, or even particularly knowledgeable about its history. Just before the “Mission Accomplished” phase of the war, I spoke about Kurdistan to an audience
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The missing Brooks correction
In his column yesterday, David Brooks apparently confused Ward Churchill (the controversial leftist professor) and Ward Connerly (the African American critic of affirmative action) in his column yesterday. The mistake has been fixed in the online version, but oddly there’s no disclosure of the correction. Brooks’s mistake comes only days after Bill Kristol led off
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Rudy Giuliani: Polarizing and unpopular
The new ABC News/Washington Post poll reveals that support for Rudy Giuliani’s potentially disastrous presidential campaign is collapsing. He’s not even well-liked any more, which destroys any rationale for why Republicans should accept his heterodox social views: Giuliani for the first time has slipped under 50 percent favorability among all adults, down steeply from a
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George W. Bush: Obsessed with exercise
How obsessed is President Bush with people’s exercise habits? Bush, who prides himself on his ability to judge character, seems to use exercise as a proxy for discipline, complaining about former economic aid Lawrence Lindsey’s failure to exercise before firing him and asking possible Supreme Court nominee J. Harvie Wilkinson III about his workout habits.
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How Obama is like George W. Bush
Here’s an unlikely comparison that seems to be becoming a meme: how Barack Obama is like George W. Bush. First, Texas Monthly editor Paul Burka drew the analogy in a Saturday NYT op-ed: By losing the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Barack Obama found himself sharing common ground with an adversary whose politics he has
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Chris Wallace asks about tax cuts & revenue
Via Greg Mankiw, I just found out that Fox’s Chris Wallace pressed Rudy Giuliani and John McCain on their unsupported claims that tax cuts increase revenue during the Republican debate Thursday: WALLACE: Mayor Giuliani, you announced plans for a big tax cut yesterday. And you have been run-ning ads that say reducing taxes actually will
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Unity ’08: Done?
The ill-fated Unity ’08 third party “movement” finally realized what I (and many others) have been trying to tell them for a long time — it’s not going to work: At the current moment, we don’t have enough members or enough money to take the next necessary step – achieving ballot access in 50 states
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Noonan peddles HillaryIs44.com again
Back in June, I criticized Peggy Noonan for asserting without evidence that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is behind the site HillaryIs44.com. Well, she’s at it again. In her WSJ column yesterday, Noonan again asserted that Clinton’s campaign is responsible for the site (via Instaputz): if we are to believe the new voice will be a softer,
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Sunstein defends prediction markets
University of Chicago law prof Cass Sunstein has a useful post defending prediction markets like Intrade against critics who bashed them for failing to foresee Hillary’s win in New Hampshire. As he correctly notes, long shots sometimes do win: Intrade had Clinton at about 8% likely to win, and 8% of the time, 8% chances
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What Huckabee and MIMS have in common
During the latest Republican debate, Mike Huckabee tried to deflect criticism with this little joke: Mr. Huckabee, for his part, responded with trademark humor. “The Air Force has a saying that says if you’re not catching flak, you’re not over the target,” he said. “I’m catching the flak; I must be over the target.” The