Obama Waffles - Racist or Fair Satire?
Attendees at a Family Research Council convention were buying up "Obama Waffles" like hotcakes before organizers decided they contained images that could be deemed racist and suspended sales. Activists at a conservative political forum snapped up boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap. Values ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 14, 2008 08:12
Newt: No Boring White Guys
Newt Gingrich is counseling the GOP not to pick any more boring white guys: With speculation mounting that John McCain may be close to choosing his running mate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday went public with his recommendations for the GOP vice presidential nominee. First choice: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Runner-up: Alasaka Gov. Sarah Palin. “What I’m afraid of is that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 23, 2008 15:43
Is it Worth Drilling For More Domestic Oil?
Newt Gingrich's American Solutions group has mounted an online petition designed to persuade Congress to open up domestic sites that are currently closed to oil and natural gas exploration. That's certainly an understandable sentiment, given the skyrocketing increases in the price of oil over the past couple of years. But opening up for exploration is not going to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 11, 2008 10:39
McCain’s First Wife
Steve Benen points to a Daily Mail piece about John McCain's first wife, Carol, whom he divorced for a younger, more attractive, wealthier woman a few years after returning from Vietnam and wonders if there isn't a double standard at work. Now, I should clarify that as far as I’m concerned, McCain’s marital difficulties and adultery aren’t especially significant in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 9, 2008 15:23
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
Into the Wilderness
Megan McArdle suggests that it might be a good thing if conservatives and libertarians get stomped in November and go "into the wilderness for a little while, where they can get their heads together without having to worry about the intellectual compromises of actual politics." The Corner's Andrew Stuttaford is befuddled by the suggestion: "As for the notion that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 22, 2008 15:29
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
Netflix Republicans?
David All argues that most of the talk about Rebuilding the Republican Brand is too focused on the past. Instead, the party should take its cues from Internet success stories like Netflix and iTunes. Gone are the days of Newt Gingrich's Contract for America, a plan which every Republican got behind and backed. A unified agenda back in 1994 ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 21, 2008 11:47
Rebuilding the Republican Brand
It's not exactly news that the Republican Party is in the doldrums at the moment. It lost control of both Houses of Congress in the 2006 elections, its president is at historic lows in the polls, it has lost a string of special elections and its incumbent Congressmen are retiring in droves, and the odds are better than even ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 20, 2008 11:43
Sound Byte Politics
Christopher Hitchens lampoons the shallow discourse of our political campaigns. It is cliché, not plagiarism, that is the problem with our stilted, room-temperature political discourse. It used to be that thinking people would say, with at least a shred of pride, that their own convictions would not shrink to fit on a label or on a bumper sticker. But now ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 4, 2008 14:52
