Month: November 2008

On Second Thought…

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by publius Ok – you guys win. The Utah boycott is a bad idea. I think the Prop 8 thing just really angered me, and I posted something quickly without thinking it through. Specifically, a statewide boycott is extremely overbroad. As a commenter noted, it’s different from a state-sponsored Confederate flag. The Mormon church is … Read more

Boycott Utah

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by publius This seems like an excellent idea to me: Utah’s growing tourism industry and the star-studded Sundance Film Festival are being targeted for a boycott by bloggers, gay rights activists and others seeking to punish the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its aggressive promotion of California’s ban on gay marriage. It … Read more

Heckuva Job Surgie

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by Eric Martin I have been warning for at least the past six months that The Surge has, in effect, consolidated Prime Minister Maliki’s position of power to such an extent that the underlying goal of The Surge, political reconciliation, has been made less likely.  To put it simply, Maliki feels less of a need … Read more

Election 1, Kaus 0

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by publius The Latino vote is one of the biggest stories of the election. Kevin Drum notes that Obama’s general national swing was +9 from Kerry. The Latino vote, however, was +27. Anticipating this large swing the day before the election, Mickey Kaus (who has nothing much to say anymore other than to bash immigrants … Read more

Hot Dingell on Waxman Action

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by publius As you may have seen, Henry Waxman is making a rather audacious move to oust John Dingell from the House Commerce Committee. The big concern with Dingell (who’s been a powerhouse for decades) is that his allegiance to the automakers makes him an enemy of energy reform. A few thoughts on this. First, … Read more

What Should You Do for Gay Rights

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–by Sebastian Now that Prop 8 has provided a temporary setback to marriage rights in California, I was thinking about what the best positive step next would look like.  Eventually there will probably have to be another vote, and the best thing I can think of for that is rather mundane.  In the next weeks … Read more

An Avalanche of Foibles

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by publius Sounds like the oppo dump on Palin is coming. Carl Cameron sez: “Notwithstanding that there is to be an avalanche that will continue for many days now we’re told of story upon story of the foibles of Sarah Palin.” The fuller exchange is in the video below. Here’s a little teaser — Cameron … Read more

A Man Out of Time

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by Eric Martin In July 2005, Powerline’s John Hinderaker made the case for Bush as The Misunderstood Genius in Chief: It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is … Read more

Prop 8 and the Black Vote

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–by Sebastian

I saw this interesting post from Ta-Nehisi Coates on California’s Prop 8 (the amendment reversing the CA Supreme Court allowing gay marriage).  I was going to leave this response to the post and comments, but he closed the comments because they were getting ugly. 

I found Prop 8 very annoying.  Its existence was in response to what I thought was a poor strategic decision on the part of gay rights advocates—to take the faster court route rather than plodding through the legislature for a few more years.  I thought that going through the courts was likely to produce a backlash that would make gay marriage ultimately take longer to get than if we stuck to the California legislature and governor.  But, once it was before the people, I of course supported voting against the initiative.  Allowing gay marriage is the right thing to do.  In any case, the comment I tried to post is quite a bit more limited in scope and is based on the statistical information available as of Wednesday morning November 5, 2008:

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Look Busy People

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by Eric Martin Alright people, roll up your sleeves, we’ve got some work to do.  The Eds was nice enough to put together a to-do list that we can use for starters: Agenda for the 1st Hundred Days: 1. Sharia. 2. Communism. 3. Compulsory gay marriage for all preschoolers. 4. Surrender to Aztlan. 5. Abortion … Read more

We on Award Tour with Muhammad My Man

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by Eric Martin Reactions from around the globe: People across Africa stayed up all night or woke before dawn to watch U.S. history being made, while the president of Kenya — where Obama’s father was born — declared a public holiday. In Indonesia, where Obama lived as child, hundreds of students at his former elementary … Read more

Random Election-Related Thoughts

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by hilzoy (1) Sometime during the primaries, for no obvious reason, it occurred to me to reflect on the question: suppose I were a black parent: how would I handle the conversation with my child about whether or not she could be President? The idea that in America anyone can be President is so basic … Read more

One Note of Caution

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by publius Not to be a buzzkill, but the next question is obviously whether Obama will be able to get anything “big” done. That turns on lots of factors, but two big ones are the Senate races and the nature of his popular victory (i.e., is it a blowout? will politicians feel pressured to follow … Read more

What Rove Hath Wrought

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by publius Tonight’s win is hard to put into words. The historical significance speaks for itself. But for all its rich history, tonight is also about far more than Barack Obama. Any way you slice it, the 2008 election should be seen as a massive repudiation of the George W. Bush administration. Karl Rove’s project … Read more

McCain Concedes

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by hilzoy John McCain just gave a truly gracious concession speech. I particularly liked the way he seemed to be urging his supporters to give Obama their complete support, not to forget that Obama will, in fact, be their President. It would have been an easy thing to somehow forget to say. It was an … Read more

Election Thread

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by publius Let’s do this thing. UPDATE: Don’t want to jinx anything, but I’m happy right now. The NC Senate race is huge. That makes Minnesota even more huge. In KY, I don’t think Lunsford will catch him. Also, Fox called Ohio and then took it back. There should be some sort of intentional tort … Read more

AIRWOLF

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by Eric Martin A mere matter of days after Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Iraqis, "Read my lips, no new amendments to the status of forces agreement," Xinhua is reporting that the US has, in fact, agreed to the most recent revised draft submitted by Iraqi negotiators.  In fairness to Gates, such ultimatums are … Read more

Joe the Strummer

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by Eric Martin

I must confess that I have an unfair advantage over many of my fellow citizens come election day in that my designated polling place happens to be in the lobby of my apartment building.  No distance to travel, no consulting a map, no mixups: just roll out of bed and pull the lever in my boxers.

Despite my cushy voting existence, today, things didn’t exactly go as planned.  I ended up spending an hour on a line that stretched a full city block just to get back into my lobby.  The line was easily more than twice as long as 2004 – and this is New York City! Where our votes count little!  And yet, there was this interminable line of people exuding a palpable excitement, if a bit dampened with a touch of groginess.

On an unrelated note, my mind kept inserting various Clash tracks into my cerebral disc player while I was waiting to vote, and I haven’t been able to get the buggers out all day.  Then I got to thinking that Joe Strummer would probably be smiling broadly at today’s events – it’s his kind of election.  And that’s when it dawned on me: Joe Strummer has chosen me as his vessel to communicate to the people from beyond the grave on this most joyous of days.  Joe in his own words:

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Right 16 out of the last 17

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link When the Redskins win their final home game before the presidential election, the incumbent party stays in office. When the Redskins lose their final home game before the election the incumbent party loses, except in 2004. Pretty simple, right? Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau discovered it’s happened precisely that way 16 of … Read more

Department Of WTF?

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by hilzoy From Clusterstock: “In a move that is sure to put to rest the notion that there are no second acts in American life, former Bear Stearns chief risk officer Michael Alix has landed a job in the office of the Federal Reserve charged with assessing the safety and soundness of domestic banking institutions. … Read more

Not Better Off

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by hilzoy Eric has already noted this post by Kevin Drum: “Back in 2004, I remember at least a few bloggers and pundits arguing that liberals would be better off if John Kerry lost. I never really bought this, but the arguments were pretty reasonable. Leaving George Bush in power meant that he’d retain responsibility … Read more

Exit Poll Boycott

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by publius Tomorrow I plan to wake up and read the newspaper. Then I’m going to turn my computer off and restart it at 7 EST when the first polls close. Radio silence for me. Maybe I’ll take a stroll. Perhaps I’ll whittle. Maybe I’ll even start my Learn Spanish program.* But one thing I … Read more

Purgatory, Not Exile, for Lieberman

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by publius I expect the Dems to get 59 Senate seats — MN will break for Franken, but they’ll lose all three Southern races. Even if the Dems ultimately fall short of 59, it will be pretty close. And that raises the ever-annoying question — What to do with Lieberman? Obviously, he could very well … Read more

Catastrophic Success

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by Eric Martin

Kevin Drum asks a question:

Back in 2004, I remember at least a few bloggers and pundits arguing that liberals would be better off if John Kerry lost. I never really bought this, but the arguments were pretty reasonable. Leaving George Bush in power meant that he’d retain responsibility and blame for the Iraq war. (Despite the surge, that’s exactly what happened.) Four more years of Republican control would turn the American public firmly against conservative misrule. (Actually, it only took two years.) If we waited, a better candidate than Kerry would come along. (Arguably, both Hillary Clinton and Obama were better candidates.)

Conversely, it’s unlikely that John Kerry could have gotten much done with a razor-thin victory and a Congress still controlled by the GOP…By waiting, we’ve gotten a strong, charismatic candidate who’s likely to win convincingly and have huge Democratic majorities in Congress behind him. If he’s willing to fully use the power of his office, Obama could very well be a transformational president.

So: were we, in fact, better off losing in 2004?

I’m not sure I can answer the question, but in August of 2004, I penned one of those posts discussing the upside of a Kerry/Edwards defeat.  I didn’t go as far as to say, with certainty, that we’d be better off, but I was conflicted and tried to put forth the pros and cons that were then-swirling around my head.  Below the fold is a condensed version of that post, which in some ways looks eerily prescient, and in others frightfully naive (and that’s with some of the warts removed).  Either way, an interesting look back at some of the darker days of the reign of Bush the Younger.

For McCain supporters, perhaps this post will show you that it’s possible to take solace in what-if type rationalizations.  But, uh, don’t get too carried away there.

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Speak Now Larry, Or Forever Hold Your Peace

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by publius Frickin’ Yglesias — I wanted to write this post today. Oh well, it’s very true and very funny: This would be an opportune moment for Larry Johnson to release the “whitey” tape. Larry Johnson deserves a lifetime wanker achievement award for his 2008 conduct. I think he’s now officially the biggest scumbag on … Read more

Exception To The Rule

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by hilzoy Meteor Blades at dKos wrote a piece today arguing that if Obama wins, he should not name Chuck Hagel Secretary of State Defense (oops!). (I agree.) In the course of his argument, he cites Ilan Goldenberg’s argument that Obama should not name any Republican to that position: “Appointing a Republican Secretary of Defense … Read more

The Joshua Moment? Race and the ’08 Election

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by publius

Somewhat ironically, race has been the great unspoken story of the 2008 election. The Obama campaign avoids discussing it like the plague (though for understandable reasons). And the pundits have generally been quiet too – other than in the aftermath of the Pennsylvania speech Obama grudgingly gave.

As the reality gets closer though, it’s worth pausing to recognize what a tremendous milestone Obama’s election would represent in America’s long and complex racial history. Jack Shafer will probably think this post uncool, because it’s borderline sappy in places. But who cares. It’s a moment of enormous racial significance – and one that’s worth reflecting on.

At this point, I suspect some conservative readers are rolling their eyes, “here they go again on this race stuff.” In these readers’ defense, I know precisely where they’re coming from. In fact, many moons ago, I used to be one of them. My goal, though, is ultimately to make these very readers sincerely appreciate the racial significance of the election — and to persuade them why liberals are right to focus on it. Accordingly, I will first explore why I think conservatives are often skeptical of liberals’ perceived obsession with race. Afterwards, I’ll explain why this “obsession” is actually a noble and worthwhile effort. (Just to warn you, this is a long one).

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Restraint

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by hilzoy Here’s an interesting piece by Jay Newton-Small at Time: “Almost two years ago, in the first months of Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency, whenever the Illinois senator would get crowds going he would intentionally dial it down a notch. I remember seeing him in Columbia on his first trip to South Carolina … Read more