Roundup: Media's Take

John Perazzo: Why Does Obama's Pastor Matter?

[John Perazzo is the Managing Editor of DiscoverTheNetworks and is the author of The Myths That Divide Us: How Lies Have Poisoned American Race Relations. For more information on his book, click here. E-mail him at wsbooks25@hotmail.com.] Barack Obama, in a way that recalls John F. Kennedy, a politician to whom he's frequently compared, has carefully controlled and burnished his image to create the impression of an independent figure, free

Frank Rich: Ask Not What J.F.K. Can Do for Obama

BEFORE John F. Kennedy was a president, a legend, a myth and a poltergeist stalking America’s 2008 campaign, he was an upstart contender seen as a risky bet for the Democratic nomination in 1960. Kennedy was judged “an ambitious but superficial playboy” by his liberal peers, according to his biographer Robert Dallek. “He never said a word of importance in the Senate, and he never did a thing,” in the authoritative estimation of the Senate’s master, Lyndon Johnson. Adlai Stevenson di

Matt Bai: Superdelegates could decide the Democratic race

This Tuesday was designed to be the day when it all gets decided for Democrats and Republicans, the moment when more than 20 states weigh in at once on the chaotic presidential campaigns. In the Democratic field, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are each hoping to pile up a decisive number of delegates and end in one night what has been a protracted and increasingly unkind competition. If the Democratic voters defy the designs of the party, though, and neither candidate can achieve a clear verdi

Paul Mirengoff: Obama's a masked man

[Paul Mirengoff is an attorney in Washington, D.C. He is a 1971 graduate of Dartmouth College and a 1974 graduate of Stanford Law School. He has two daughters and lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland.] Shelby Steele is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He's the author of The Content of Our Character, A Dream Deferred, and White Guilt. A few years ago, President Bush awarded him the National Humanities Medal. Steele's latest book is A Bound Man: Why We Ar

Jean Johnson and Scott Bittle: Where does the money go?

[Scott Bittle, an award-winning journalist, is executive editor of PublicAgendaOnline, a public affairs site twice-nominated for the prestigious Webby Award. Jean Johnson is executive vice president of Public Agenda and a founder of the Web site. She has written on public opinion and current issues for dozens of publications ranging from Education Week to USA Today.] Thanks to some fearless investigative journalism by the Associated Press, voters can now ponder revealing new facts o

Eileen McNamara: Shades of 1960

[Eileen McNamara, a former columnist at the Globe, is a journalism professor at Brandeis University.] IN HIS endorsement of Barack Obama this week, Senator Edward M. Kennedy dismissed doubts about the Illinois senator's age and experience with a glancing reference to President Harry S. Truman's misgivings about another brash young senator who challenged party elders for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1960. More campaign coverage: The full text of

Edward J. Lazarus: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Debate Over How Much Supreme Court Decisions Truly Matter

[Edward Lazarus, a FindLaw columnist, writes about, practices, and teaches law in Los Angeles. A former federal prosecutor, he is the author of two books -- most recently, Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court.] Over the last 15 years, a considerable academic literature has developed that downplays the importance of landmark Supreme Court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education or Roe v. Wade in reshaping American society. Beginni

Kathleen Parker: Chasing John Kennedy & Ronald Reagan

[Ms. Parker is a columnist for RealClearPolitics.] Americans finally have narrowed the presidential race to two front-runners: John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Too bad they're both busy chatting up Guinevere and Galahad, respectively, in the ultimate Camelot, where the climate really is perfect all the year. Eternally. Back on planet Earth, where we typically elect live specimens, the legacies of Kennedy and Reagan can't get a rest. The Republic

Bernard-Henri Lévy: How Monica Lewinsky Continues To Dominate American Politics

All the talk here is about the presidential election, along with the recession. And within that election, clearly the only duel that matters, for the moment, is the one between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I observe Clinton in her television appearances. I see how hard she works at trying to prove that she is more experienced, more prepared than her opponent. I can see where the spin doctors have been fine-tuning her speeches on Iraq and o

Alvaro Vargas Llosa: Tragedy In Kenya ... Why Blaming European Imperials Won't Cut It Anymore

[Alvaro Vargas Llosa, author of Liberty for Latin America, is the director of the Center on Global Prosperity at the Independent Institute.] ... Make no mistake about it. The stealing of the election did not create problems where there were none. The dominant tribe, the Kikuyu, was already looked upon with suspicion by other tribes, including Odinga's Luos, who felt marginalized. Muslims felt left behind by Christians. Various provinces resented the concentration of power in the Cen

Richard W. Garnett: When Catholicism was the target

[Richard W. Garnett is the John Cardinal O'Hara, C.S.C. associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame.] ... It is easy to forget but, from the Puritans to the Framers and beyond, anti-"popery" was thick in the cultural air breathed by the early Americans. Our forebears were raised on hair-raising tales of Armadas and Inquisitions, Puritan heroism and Bloody Mary, Jesuit schemes and Gunpowder Plots, lecherous confessors and baby-killing nuns. As the great histo

William Kristol: You fight an election with the politicians you have

... It's foolish to wait for another Ronald Reagan. But not just because his political gifts are rare. There's a particular way in which Reagan was exceptional that many of us fail to appreciate: He was the only president of the last century who came to the office as the leader of an ideological movement. Reagan gave "The Speech" in October 1964, inherited the leadership of the conservative movement after Goldwater's loss, defeated a moderate establishment Republican two y

Jacob Weisberg: The Bush Tragedy

[Excerpt from Weisberg's new book, The Bush Tragedy.] There's some support for the dynastic reading that George W. Bush intended to invade Iraq from the outset of his presidency to avenge his father. "After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time," Bush declared at a political fund-raiser in Houston in September 2002. Considerable doubt has since arisen around the incident Bush was referring to, a supposed plot by Saddam to blow up the former president wit

Melvin E. Lee: Grievance-Based Terrorism

[Melvin E. Lee is a sea captain and a nuclear engineer in the United States Navy. He serves as special operations officer for the commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, and commander, U.S. 6th Fleet. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the Department of the Navy or U.S. government.] The fundamental premise of much scholarly examination and public discourse is that grievances with U.S. policies in the Midd

E.J. Dionne: Bill Clinton used to sound a lot like Barack Obama, which makes his recent outbursts all the more disheartening.

It was a remarkable moment: A young, free-thinking presidential hopeful named Bill Clinton sat down with reporters and editors at The Washington Post in October 1991 and started saying things most Democrats wouldn't allow to pass their lips. Ronald Reagan, Clinton said, deserved credit for winning the Cold War. He praised Reagan's "rhetoric in defense of freedom" and his role in "advancing the idea that communism could be rolled back." "The idea

Dick Morris: There's a method to crafty Bill's madness

Why is Bill Clinton courting such intense publicity, in evitably much of it negative? Is he crazy? Crazy like a fox. He has two goals and is achieving them both spectacularly. First, he wants to be the same kind of lightning rod for Hillary that she was for him during his run for the presidency. As the 1992 Republican convention approached, Hillary ratcheted up her comments and profile precisely to attract GOP fire so that they would leave Bill

Ezra Klein: The three reasons the Clinton administration's health care reform effort failed, and how the next Democratic president can get it right

[Ezra Klein is a Prospect staff writer.] In the best of circumstances, presidential libraries are a strange combination of leftover campaign literature and newfound architectural ambition. Even so, the Clinton Presidential Library, in Little Rock, Ark., is notable for approaching its subject with all the depth of a coloring book. Eight years of policies, political battles, and world events are sorted into 20-odd "policy alcoves," each headlined by a slogan from the campaig

Bret Stephens: The Tet Offensive is what McCain's candidacy is all about. In many ways it's what this year's election is all about, too.

By an apt coincidence, the revival of John McCain's political fortunes takes place close to the 40th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, when some 100,000 North Vietnamese troops and Vietcong irregulars launched a coordinated attack on the South that took the U.S. by surprise and permanently altered the political landscape of the war. That event, far more so than Sept. 11, is what Mr. McCain's candidacy is all about. In many ways it's what this year's election is all about, too. There

Barbara Ehrenreich: Of Race and Progress (LBJ and MLK controversy)

[Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of "Nickel and Dimed," is the winner of the 2004 Puffin/Nation Prize. 2008, The Nation.] At first I took it as another -- yawn -- white rip-off of black culture and creativity: the Rolling Stones appropriating the Bo Diddley beat, Bo Derek sporting cornrows and now Hillary giving Lyndon Baines Johnson credit for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. If you had to give this honor to a white guy, LBJ was an odd choice, since he'd spent

Bill Moyers: Does it take a president to get things done?

BILL MOYERS: If William Shakespeare were around I suspect he might describe the recent flap between the Obama and Clinton camps as much ado about nothing or a tempest in a teapot. Senator Clinton was heard to say that it took a president – Lyndon Johnson – to consummate the work of Martin Luther King by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Almost no one in the media bothered to run the whole quote. Here it is: HILLARY CLINTON:Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Ly