No Experience Required

Hillary Clinton’s principal weapon against the insurgent campaign of Barack Obama is to tout her experience. She says she would be ready from day one to do the job, implying that Obama would have to learn on the job. Everyone seems to take it as an article of faith that Clinton’s years in [...]

McCain vs Romney

And then there were two. Giuliani’s strategy of ignoring the early primaries in hopes of winning Florida and taking that momentum to Super Tuesday looked good when no clear front runner had emerged after South Carolina, but as any poker player will tell you, when someone goes all in, they’re either sure of winning, [...]

Alexis de Tocqueville – Redux

“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
This oft quoted aphorism, attributed to Tocqueville, has been used extensively by presidents, politicians, essayists and bloggers in innumerable postings, speeches and op-eds. The only problem is that Tocqueville never said it. A word by word [...]

South Carolina – Democrat Edition

Obama’s victory was predicted by the pundits, but his winning margin was a surprise. In the end he won 55 % of the vote to Clinton’s 27% (and Edwards’ 18%); he won 44 out of 46 counties; he won 2-1 among male voters, 53% to 30% among female voters; 78% of the black vote; and [...]

Election High – Part 2

Potted biographies of candidates for ASB president.
The Republicans:
John McCain – Oldest kid in high school. ROTC cadet. In junior high, served 30 consecutive days in detention for school prank, but got street cred for not ratting out his co-conspirators for a lighter sentence. Has a reputation for shooting off his mouth to students and teachers [...]

Election High – Part 1

What if the candidates were running for president of the high school ASB or student council? Herewith their potted biographies.
The Democrats: 
Hillary Clinton – Plain Jane with coke bottle glasses. A+ student, always prepared for every test, including pop quizzes. Sits in the front seat of every class, her hand is the first one up [...]

The Strait of Tonkin?

On August 5, 1964, The New York Times reported:
“President Johnson has ordered retaliatory action against gunboats and ‘certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam’ after renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.”
On the same day, the Washington Post announced:
“American Planes Hit North Vietnam After Second Attack on Our Destroyers; Move Taken to Halt [...]

California and the politics of personality

An article in today’s L.A.Times reports that California voters, despite being gloomy about the economy, are still willing to give Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the benefit of the doubt. A CNN/ Times poll found that he enjoys the approval of 60% of the electorate, even though California is facing a $14.5-billion budget deficit.
There must be something [...]

Run, Bloomberg, Run

“Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime”
Andrew Marvell – “To his Coy Mistress”
Who knew that English metaphysical poets could be so prescient about elections in their future colonies?
As early as 8 months ago, Michael Blooomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, and current mayor of New York, was exploring a presidential [...]

If this is Tuesday, I must be in Tel Aviv.

It has become a rite of passage for two term presidents in their final year of office to traipse off to the Middle East to bring about a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. They attempt to solve, in a few days during their lame-duck term, an intractable problem that the principal parties have been [...]