Roundup: Media's Take

Steven Hill: A Way Out Of the Nader Dilemma

[Steven Hill is Director of the Political Reform Program at the New America Foundation, which seeks to identify and develop the best opportunities for political and electoral reform, educate opinion leaders and the public about electoral alternatives, and encourage the formation of a broad-based coalition for reform.] With Ralph Nader in the race, Democrats are fuming and no doubt preparing to use the same legal tricks they used in 2004 to keep Nader off the ballot in many states. Republ

Mark D. Tooley: Bush Library for Southern Methodist University

[Mark D. Tooley directs the United Methodist committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy.] Leftist faculty and clergy have waged a long, sometimes nasty battle to keep Southern Methodist (SMU) University in Dallas from hosting the Bush Library. They have insisted that the library will tie SMU to the Bush Administration’s supposedly sinister policies of preemptive war, “torture,” uncontrolled Global Warming, and puritanical repression. But SMU’s board of trustees has finally

Stephen Schlesinger: Obama and The Myth of Pledged Delegates

[Stephen Schlesinger is the former Director of the World Policy Institute at the New School University in New York City (1997-2006). Mr. Schlesinger received his BA from Harvard University and his JD from Harvard Law School.] There is no rule in the politics of Democratic Party conventions that says that the contender with the largest number of pledged delegates short of the total required for nomination should automatically, by dint of that achievement, be handed the party's design

John H. Taylor: Comparing Bush with Nixon

[John H. Taylor, executive director of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation, which opened the private Nixon Library in 1990.] In a recent survey, President Bush ’s negatives outnumbered RN’s. Time for some perspective on the underdogs. First, a list of GWB’s accomplishments from a friend who avoids public political commentary, then a list I compiled last year of RN’s:President Bush * Standing up to the right on th

Kelly Nuxoll: Barack Obama on the Path to Sainthood

[I'm a freelance writer, adopting as my beat for "Off the Bus" not any of the candidates, but the public conversation around the presidential campaigns....I've taught writing for about ten years, including Logic and Rhetoric at Columbia, and I've written for newspapers, magazines, nonprofits, online pubs, and Howard Dean's presidential campaign.] On the cusp of the Texas and Ohio elections, Barack Obama is dangerously close to becoming a bona fide charismatic leader

Paul Finkelman: What the voters want is an optimistic candidate

[Paul Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy and Senior Fellow in the Government Law Center at Albany Law School.] A year ago everyone assumed that by the early winter of 2008 Hillary Clinton would have locked up the Democratic nomination for president. She had money, name recognition, and a seemingly well-oiled machine. Now she is on the ropes, fighting to stay in the race. What happened? Senator Clinton lacked one

E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Obama 2008 = Reagan 1980

Barack Obama's critics bear a remarkable resemblance to the liberals who labored mightily to dismiss Ronald Reagan in 1980. Reagan's foes wrote him off as a right-wing former actor who amiably spouted conservative bromides and must have been engaged in some sort of Hollywood flimflam. Like Reagan's enemies, Obama's opponents concede that this Democrat gives a great speech. Indeed, both Obama and Reagan came to wide attention because of a single oration that offered hope

Larry Diamond: We are about to move from "the silly season" to "the ugly season"

[Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor by courtesy of political science and sociology at Stanford University, where he also coordinates the democracy program of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. ] Anyone who is not deeply naïve about American politics had to know it was coming: an intense assault on Barack Obama's character, his past, and his judgment. Now, as the previous fragments of rumor, innuendo, online reporting, and

Ryan Cole: Is McCain Too Old?

[Mr. Cole is a writer based in Washington, D.C.] John McCain will turn 72 in August. If he goes on to win the presidency in November he will be the oldest American to enter that high office. Though his opponents have only nibbled around the corners of the issue, Mr. McCain's age will certainly emerge as the presidential sweepstakes unfold. Indeed, it is likely to be a prime target of his would-be Democratic opponent in the general election. This will especially be the c

Humberto Fontova: Cuba's New and Improved Tyrant

[Humberto Fontova is the author of Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Visit www.hfontova.com] With Raul Castro's ascent to power in Havana, the news media have dutifully presented him as a potential Gorbachev. The Chicago Tribune headline blares, "Cubans Hope Raul Castro Brings Reform." True, the Associated Press reporter acknowledges, Raul has been a hardliner by his brother Fidel's side for five deca

Michael Crowley: Is Obama's Iraq record really a fairy tale?

[Michael Crowley is a senior editor at The New Republic.] It was a cool, damp afternoon when Barack Obama arrived to speak at an antiwar rally in Chicago's Federal Plaza on October 2, 2002. The scene was ragtag. A metal tower had been festooned with strips of white cloth upon which rally attendees wrote personalized peace messages. Protesters danced to a band featuring kazoos and a marching skeleton. Jesse Jackson was to be the day's marquee speaker. But it was Obama, wearing a war

Stephen F. Hayes: Obama as Carter

[Stephen F. Hayes is a senior writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD.] IN A VERY SMART piece in today's New York Observer on Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, Steve Kornacki writes: In the '76 primaries, Carter's Democratic foes at first ignored his trust theme and then--when it was too late--brayed against it, warning that he'd been maddeningly vague about what he'd actually do as president. Hillary Clin

Spengler: Obama's women reveal his secret

"Cherchez la femme," advised Alexander Dumas in: "When you want to uncover an unspecified secret, look for the woman." In the case of Barack Obama, we have two: his late mother, the went-native anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his rancorous wife Michelle. Obama's women reveal his secret: he hates America. ... Never underestimate the influence of a wife who bitch-slaps her husband in public. Early in Obama's campaign, Michelle Obama could not restrain herself from b

Stephen Hayes: Obama and the Power of Words

[Mr. Hayes, a senior writer for The Weekly Standard, is the author of "Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President," (HarperCollins, 2007).] These are words that move and uplift, that give hope to the hopeless. These words inspired millions of voters nationwide to join the grand experiment called democracy, casting votes for their candidate, their country, their destiny: "More than anything else, I want my candidac

Geraldine A. Ferraro: Why Democrats created Super Delegates

[Geraldine A. Ferraro, a lawyer and a former member of Congress, was the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1984.] ... After the 1980 presidential election, the Democratic Party was in disarray. That year, Senator Ted Kennedy had challenged President Jimmy Carter for the presidential nomination, and Mr. Kennedy took the fight to the convention floor by proposing 23 amendments to the party platform. When it was all over, members of Congress who were concerned about their re-el

Fareed Zakaria: The End of Conservatism

Conservatives are a gloomy bunch at the moment. Many believe that their party—the Republican Party—has lost its way and that it has done so by abandoning its principles. Aside from his foreign policy and Supreme Court appointments, conservatives find little to love about George W. Bush. His signature domestic policies include a vast expansion of government-financed health care (prescription-drug benefits), and increased funding for education while halfheartedly promoting vouchers and school choi

George F. Will: How McGovern Made This

The former bomber pilot's spry walk belies his 85 years, he dresses like a boulevardier—gray slacks, blue blazer, shirt with bright-red stripes and white collar—and tucks into a robust breakfast. Long ago, he began shaping the Democrats' presidential nomination process into the one that has his party's two contenders locked in a long march to Pennsylvania's April primary. He has seen important aspects of American politics move in his direction in the 36 years since he lost 49 states to Richard N

Frances Trix: Kosova ... Stories the Press Missed

[Frances Trix is an associate professor of linguistics and anthropology at Indiana University. She speaks Albanian and spent the summer of 2007 in Kosova doing research on Kosova under the UN administration.] Since Kosova declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, there has been media coverage of Serbia's negative response and the fragility of the "new state." The press has been fascinated by the sight of Serbs demonstrating in Belgrade and burning embassie

Alan S. Blinder: From the New Deal, a Way Out of a Mess

THE question of the day seems to be this: Are we in, or heading for, a recession? But so much attention is focused on that question that we may be losing sight of an even greater danger: the possibility that powerful headwinds may prevent a strong recovery from any slowdown. Most of the potential headwinds stem from the housing slump and related financial crises that began — but, unfortunately, did not end — with the subprime mortgage debacle. Wounded financial markets are supposed

Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes: The three trillion dollar war

[Joseph Stiglitz was chief economist at the World Bank and won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics in 2001. Linda Bilmes is a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Extracted from The Three Trillion Dollar War, to be published by Allen Lane on February 28 (£20).] The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive con