Presidents, the Military, and Stagecraft
Dana Milbank starts an otherwise thoughtful piece with a rather sophomoric attempt at humor: First, the good news: President Obama will not be wearing a flight suit when he addresses the cadets at West Point on Tuesday night. Nor will he wear a bomber jacket with the presidential seal on the chest, nor even, the White House promises, a windbreaker with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 1, 2009 13:29
Christopher Hitchens on Edward Kennedy
Christopher Hitchens is an iconoclast's iconoclast, famously willing to piss on anyone's grave, whether it be Mother Tereasa, Bob Hope, or Teddy Kennedy. Interestingly, this time he smacks down with one hand whilst patting on the back with the other: Sure, the "tragedy" of Chappaquiddick had its necessary moment, but even in those days Barbara Walters was doing her damage control, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 31, 2009 15:09
Mary Jo Kopechne
In my early morning Teddy Kennedy Dead at 77 media roundup post, I observed, "That the Chappaquiddick scandal didn’t make the first several paragraphs — or even first page — of several of these obits is quite remarkable. It would be like writing an obit for Richard Nixon that didn’t mention Watergate or one for Michael Jackson that glossed over ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 26, 2009 14:31
Vietnam Not Winnable
Gary Farber continues his look at the latest document release from President Nixon's archives and finds corroboration for his long held belief that Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed the war in Vietnam was unwinnable and "simply wanted to punt the issue until after the 1972 elections, after which they expected South Vietnam to collapse." And, of course, we learned not ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 6, 2009 15:58
Ending the Vice Presidency II
Jeremy Lott's attempted response to my response piece on "Ending the Vice Presidency" was, for some odd reason*, rejected altogether by my commenting system. Rather than pasting them into the comments of a post buried in the archives, I've done it below, with my original in blockquotes, followed by his retort in boldface, followed by my rejoinder, if any, in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 26, 2009 06:59
Ending the Vice Presidency
Sunday's WaPo put together a collection of half-baked ideas by smart folks, designed to generate controversy and discussion more so than shed serious light on policy ideas. Thomas Ricks' suggestion to close the service academies and war colleges got the most attention, overshadowing the abject silliness of Jeremy Lott's column advocating doing away with the vice presidency, an idea not ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 22, 2009 09:13
The Pope Picks Our Ambassadors Now?
I glossed over yesterday's news that the Vatican blocked Caroline Kennedy's appointment as U.S. ambassador for a variety of reasons. Regular commenter Tlaloc emailed me, though, making a good point: [T]he Vatican refuses to accept any ambassador who is not explicitly pro-life including anti-ESC research (such as Doug Kmiec). Various voices on the right have praised them for this principled stand. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 12, 2009 07:08
Obama TIME Person of the Year 2008
In its quadrennial no-brainer, TIME has named Barack Obama its Person of the Year. Oddly, it takes several paragraphs of throat clearing to get to anything like making a case for the choice: As Obama has moved with unprecedented speed to build an Administration that would bolster the confidence of a shaken world, his flash and dazzle have faded ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 17, 2008 11:10
Taking Separation of Powers Seriously
Glenn Greenwald, reacting to reports that Barack Obama has told Harry Reid that Joe Lieberman should not be stripped of his committee chairmanship and thus making it very difficult for him to do so, has written a long and passionate plea for a return to vigorous separation of powers with strong institutional jealousies. [W]hatever the outcome here is, it's vital that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 11, 2008 15:12
McCain Pollster: Race Too Close to Call
Bill McInturff, John McCain's chief pollster, released a memo last night saying the campaign has made "significant progress" in the last week and that "All signs say we are headed to an election that may easily be too close to call by next Tuesday." Disclaimer up front: As I've noted numerous times before, my wife is Chief Operating Officer of McInturff's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 29, 2008 08:33
Experience: Obama v. Palin
Josh Marshall headlines as "Sadly Nuts" a post responding to John McCain's retort, to questions of Sarah Palin's qualifications to serve as president, "If they want to go down that route, in all candor, she has far, far more experience than Senator Obama does." Says Josh, Set aside the bravado. Can McCain possibly believe that? And if he does, what are we ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 1, 2008 07:52
John McCain’s Houses
How rich and out of touch with ordinary American working stiffs is John McCain? Why, he doesn't even know how many houses he owns! This story, published by The Politico, is now the top story on Memeorandum. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. "I think — I'll ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 21, 2008 12:59
North Carolina Man Quits Rather than Lower Flag for Helms
A North Carolina bureaucrat retired rather than honor Jesse Helms. L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 10, 2008 09:30
Who’s Smearing Whom?
James Kirchich, recent nominee for an Yglesias Award for fairness, says that, while the Obama campaign is setting itself up to believe that "The only obstacle between Barack Obama and the presidency is the mountain of smears that will no doubt come his way," the truth of the matter is that most of the smears are coming from his side. Thus ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 2, 2008 09:33
Obama Has 15 Point Lead in Newsweek Poll
A Newsweek poll of registered voters shows Barack Obama with a whopping 15-point lead over John McCain, 51 to 36. Newsweek's Michael Hirsh is stoked. Barack finally has his bounce. For weeks many political experts and pollsters have been wondering why the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain had stayed so tight, even after the Illinois senator ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 21, 2008 08:38
