Going to War with the Ideology You Have
Kevin Drum, responding to Jonah Goldberg's argument that George Packer's "The Fall of Conservatism" erroneously conflates conservatism with the Republican Party, retorts: No political ideology lives in isolation. We judge communism by how Mao and Stalin implemented it, we judge 60s-era liberalism by how LBJ and the Democratic Party implemented it, and we judge social democracy by how Western Europe has ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 23, 2008 07:50
McCain’s Vice Presidential Candidates
John McCain is vetting potential vice presidential candidates over the holiday weekend, Adam Nagourney reports for the NYT. Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a one-time rival for the Republican nomination, have all accepted invitations to visit with Mr. McCain at his ranch in Sedona, these Republicans said. This ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 22, 2008 08:48
Payback Time for Clinton
The sense that Hillary Clinton's nomination was inevitable gave her a huge advantage coming into this campaign, making it very risky for big Democratic donors not to pony up and for superdelegates to endorse her opponent. Now that her eventual loss seems certain, though, the long knives are coming out, Susan Milligan reports. [T]he reality of the Clintons' relationship with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 19, 2008 07:06
Sweetie-gate
Barack Obama has a "bad habit" of addressing "all kinds of people" as "Sweetie" in casual conversation, although he's trying to quit. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has apologized to WXYZ reporter Peggy Agar for calling her "sweetie" during a campaign stop Wednesday in Sterling Heights. Obama apologized in a voicemail he left on Agar's cell phone at 3:16 p.m: "Hi Peggy. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 15, 2008 08:04
Still The Least Dangerous Branch
Anna Quindlen argues that Supreme Court appointments are the most important choices presidents make. Congress chips away at legislation, then sends some lowest-common-denominator version to the White House, to be signed or vetoed or later redesigned by the next president to take up temporary residence in Washington. But the work of the high court has had vast systemic influence over the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 9, 2008 09:53
Prostitution as a Capital Crime in the Capitol
Megan McArdle is "physically sick" that the DC Madam has committed suicide, driven to do so by a state using its resources to hound a woman engaging in consensual commerce rather than tracking down violent criminals. James Poulos wonders why he should care that a lawbreaker has killed herself. Emotionally, I'm much closer to James than Megan on this one. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 2, 2008 09:44
Professor Ordered to Take Down Cartoons
A tenured, conservative professor has been ordered to take cartoons off his door because they offended someone. Getting one’s own office can be a rite of passage right up there with defending a dissertation or receiving tenure — and many professors’ lairs are reflections of their own attitudes and beliefs. Usually, it takes just a quick glance at the door, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 10, 2008 12:03
Libertarians for Obama?
Megan McArdle explains why she prefers Barack Obama to John McCain despite the former's protectionism and "his insanely bad economic 'patriot act.'" I might not vote for Obama; I will not vote for McCain. There are some things more important than the economy, and free speech is among them. Yes, I don't like Obama's stance on the Second Amendment, but ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on February 23, 2008 08:14
Rotten Way to Pick a President
Sean Wilentz and Julian Zelizer argue that the current system of primaries and caucuses is "A Rotten Way to Pick a President." Something is seriously wrong with the way we pick our presidential candidates. But experts and pundits, caught up in the horse races, have been slow to point out the obvious -- or have come to accept our badly ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on February 17, 2008 08:54
Usury Laws, the Christian Right, and Bad Statistics
A study (or, rather, a report on said study) by two law professors on the relationship between the availability of high-interest payday loans and representation by Christian conservative legislators is generating some blogospheric commentary. The study's abstract: The culture war has become a national moniker describing a variety of policy debates between social conservatives and secular liberal Americans. Hotly ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on February 17, 2008 07:45
