Enforcing Civility in Blog Comments
Alan Jacobs: "Nothing could better justify Ross’s decision to start moderating comments on his blog than the comments on the announcement itself." For those who don't click links, Ross Douthat has announced that, "From now on, one of the Atlantic's crack interns will be going through the comment threads at the end of every business day, deleting any comments that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 17, 2008 06:45
Obama’s Baby Mama
Today's Manufactured Outrage of the Day* is that, on a mid-day Fox News program featuring Megyn Kelly and Michelle Malkin debating the impact of Michelle Obama on the race, the production assistant in charge of writing chyrons dubbed the would-be first Lady "Obama's Baby Mama." Apparently, this is a racial slur which suggests that she and Obama aren't ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 12, 2008 07:37
Obama’s Speech: Poisoning the Well
One of the major strains of reaction to Barack Obama's "More Perfect Union" speech is that those who are not persuaded by it are therefore racist or at least unreasoning fools. Poisoning the well in this manner may be an effective rhetorical device but it undercuts the very message of the speech, which is that race remains a very ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 19, 2008 10:21
Confederate Flag Flies in South Carolina Primary
The Civil War might have ended 143 years ago but the Confederate battle flag refuses to die as a political issue. The Republican presidential candidates on Thursday moved to appeal to different types of conservative voters before the South Carolina primary, with Mike Huckabee using colorful language to declare the Confederate flag a states’ rights issue and Senator John McCain ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on January 18, 2008 11:34
McCain Wants Respectful Fight with Clinton
John McCain is trying to simultaneously position himself as the GOP's best hope to beat Hillary Clinton while avoiding a mud-slinging battle. In a speech here that his campaign described as the kind of pointed but respectful approach he will take for the rest of the campaign, Mr. McCain sought to tap into the anti-Clinton sentiment seen to be driving many ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 19, 2007 12:34
Civility, Hypocrisy, and the Rules of Political Debate
Glenn Greenwald argues that many of those now condemning MoveOn.org and/or demanding that Democrats condemn MoveOn.org for suggesting General David Petraeus would "betray us" are hypocrites, since many have used inflammatory rhetoric themselves. He's surely right in many particulars. Those on the Ann Coulter wing of the Right, who routinely throw around words like "traitors" and "treason" to describe mainstream ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 12, 2007 15:49
Why Third Parties Fail
Britt Peterson's profile of Unity08's dream of a bipartisan presidential ticket demonstrates why third parties have such an uphill fight in America. Not only is the deck stacked against them institutionally -- Ross Perot, easily the most successful modern example won "19 percent of the popular vote but not a single electoral vote" -- but there simply isn't much ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 24, 2007 13:14
Roman Empire Mythology
David Walker, the comptroller general, has created quite a stir with his recent GAO report, "Transforming Government to Meet the Demands of the 21st Century," [PDF] which says that the United States is going the way of the Roman Empire. America is a great nation, probably the greatest in history. But if we want to keep America great, we have to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 14, 2007 16:15
A Call For Civility
From Markos Moulitsas Zúniga. Reasonable people, including progressives, can disagree on many of the big issues we face today -- from which candidate to support in the primary, to whether impeachment is the best way to hold this administration accountable, to the merit of gun control or free trade agreements, to how to handle immigration, to whatever else faces our nation. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 23, 2007 18:00
Elizabeth Edwards Confronts Ann Coulter
Elizabeth Edwards called in to "Hardball" yesterday afternoon to confront Ann Coulter. Elizabeth Edwards pleaded Tuesday with Ann Coulter to "stop the personal attacks," a day after the conservative commentator said she wished Edwards' husband, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, had been killed by terrorists. "The things she has said over the years, not just about John but about other candidates, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 27, 2007 10:12
