John Heileman has an article in New York Magazine listing ten reasons Eliot Spitzer was politically undone by his infidelities while Bill Clinton managed to survive his. The most important reasons seem to be that Spitzer had already become very … Continue reading →
Peter Wehner presents an absolutely devastating critique of Obama’s most visible foreign policy record, his position on Iraq. It’s also the record of which Obama is most proud. But if one closely follows his shifting statements, it’s hard to conclude … Continue reading →
David Mamet’s Village Voice piece on his political conversion—“Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’”—has caused a minor sensation. To me, of course, it’s an old story, not only because I experienced something of the sort myself, but because … Continue reading →
No, there’s not really any relation between Mamet, change, and Eliot Spitzer. Except that I was planning to write a post today on playwright David Mamet’s Village Voice essay “Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal.’” It seemed tailor-made … Continue reading →
I grew up in New York City during what may have been the golden age of ballet. My parents loved dance, and so they took me at an early age to see the greats—the New York City Ballet and American … Continue reading →
…or delusions. Hillary’s “red phone” ad may have been many things, but racist was not one of them.
Continue reading →Presidential races require strategy. As they’ve become longer and more complex, they’ve taken on qualities somewhere between a marathon, a boxing match, and an advertising campaign. Special advisers can help the candidates, much like trainers, coaches, and promoters. But still, … Continue reading →
Michael Totten’s latest. Worth reading, as always.
Continue reading →[NOTE: For earlier posts about my mother, see this one about her stroke, this one about her recuperation, and this one about her move from the New England town where we’d both been living to the New York City community … Continue reading →
By now the consensus is that Hillary’s red phone ad probably helped her comeback on Super Tuesday Two. The ad was controversial but traditional, in the mold of a famous ad Walter Mondale used against Gary Hart in 1984, and … Continue reading →
Candidates’ spouses (we can’t just say “wives” anymore, can we?) are less important than the candidates themselves. But they still have an effect on elections. Most spouses still try to go the old route of staying bland enough to cause … Continue reading →
Yesiree, that’s their motto in Brattleboro: “Where it can ALL happen.” I’m not exactly sure what the ALL is about, although the slogan is vaguely reminiscent of Barack Obama’s. But one thing that has indeed happened is that Vermont is … Continue reading →