May 2008

Playing by the Rules
The debacle over seating Florida's and Michigan's delegates is the culmination of the Democratic Party's failure to change the primary process over the years.
May 30, 2008 | By Mori Dinauer | web only

Muqtada's Got a Posse
Patrick Cockburn's new book, Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq, confronts neocon myths about the political situation in Iraq.
May 30, 2008 | By Matthew Duss | web only

Byron Dorgan's Contracting Fraud Crusade
Byron Dorgan has led a crusade against contractor fraud in Iraq. Now he wants a full congressional committee with subpoena power to finally expose the truth about war profiteering.
May 30, 2008 | By Brian Beutler | web only

The Meltdown Lowdown
(No. 8)
This week in economic news: House prices continue to plummet, speculation is probably not to blame for high gas prices, and new corruption is exposed in the mortgage industry.
May 29, 2008 | By Dean Baker | web only

Clinton's Two-State Two-Step
Hillary Clinton and her supporters are welcome to advocate for the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations, but insisting that doing otherwise is undemocratic and unfeminist is a mockery of both ideas.
May 29, 2008 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

It's Time to Stop Talking About Soft Power
Democrats have a rare opportunity in 2008 to finally erase their long-running deficit on security issues. One of the things they should consider is changing the terminology they use.
May 29, 2008 | By Ilan Goldenberg | web only

Is Jim Webb Too Good for the Vice Presidency?
Jim Webb is on the top of everyone's VP picks list, and the release of his new book suggests he is gunning for the job. But Webb is a politician unlike any other -- and that's why he should stay in the Senate.
May 28, 2008 | By Ezra Klein | web only

Contempt for Karl Rove?
As Karl Rove is subpoenaed to testify before Congress, the White House fights a congressional law suit aimed at forcing the testimony of administration officials.
May 28, 2008 | By Brian Beutler | web only

The POW Dodge
John McCain maintains that he doesn't exploit his captivity in Vietnam for his campaign, but in reality he can barely talk about anything else. That's fine, but McCain's service should be the start of a conversation -- not the end of one
May 27, 2008 | By Paul Waldman | web only

A Useful Nudge in California
The California Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage fits neatly within a pattern of jurisprudence that goes back to the Warren Court.
May 23, 2008 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

The Appeasement Paradox
Conservatives say reasoning with foreign dictators is pointless because it grants bad actors legitimacy. In doing so, they fail to understand the usefulness of diplomacy and the limits of American power.
May 23, 2008 | By Matthew Yglesias | web only

Vice President Bobby Jindal?
Bobby Jindal headed to Sedona last weekend for a Memorial Day weekend VP tryout.
May 23, 2008 | By Mori Dinauer | web only

The Meltdown Lowdown
(No. 7)
The Senate decides to help struggling homeowners by taking money from low-income renters, the Federal Reserve suddenly realizes the economy is in trouble and inflation seems likely to rise.
May 22, 2008 | By Dean Baker | web only

What Does Not Change
Forget what happened in Kentucky and Oregon. What's most telling in the Democratic primaries are the things that don't change: More voters, more volunteers.
May 21, 2008 | By Mark Schmitt | web only

The FundamentaList
(No. 35)
Conservatives rail against the California Supreme Court, moderate evangelicals are divided, and will Mike Huckabee be picked as John McCain's VP?
May 21, 2008 | By Sarah Posner | web only

The Backlash That Wasn't
The conservative reaction to last week's California Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage was remarkably subdued. Even John McCain, desperate to pander to the base, had little to say.
May 20, 2008 | By Paul Waldman | web only

A Crisis of Attention and Intention
The distracted American college student can teach us a lot about living a life that is more than just productive.
May 19, 2008 | By Courtney E. Martin | web only

Harry Reid's High Hopes
Harry Reid is not an optimistic man, but even he predicts big gains for Democrats in 2008. Even voters in the reddest of red states want to punish Republicans.
May 19, 2008 | By Terence Samuel | web only

Iron Man Versus the Imperialists
What's missing in the movie is what has sustained the comic book series for most of its history. Iron Man is actually a scathing critique of American imperialism.
May 16, 2008 | By Spencer Ackerman | web only

McCain's America
John McCain intends to win the presidency by convincing voters he's just more American than Barack Obama. McCain's gambit reveals how hollow his vision of America is and shows how desperate the GOP has become.
May 15, 2008 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

The Meltdown Lowdown
(No. 6)
Barney Frank's bailout would mainly benefit banks, stimulus checks provide little stimulus, and the benefits of higher prices from China.
May 15, 2008 | By Dean Baker | web only

Debating Liberal Internationalism
Matt Yglesias argues that Democrats need to embrace liberal internationalism wholeheartedly. Anne-Marie Slaughter, David Frum, Justin Logan, Derek Chollet, and David Rieff respond.
May 15, 2008 | By The Editors | web only

Is Congress the Problem With Health Care?
Tom Daschle thinks so, and he should know. The former Senate minority leader sat down with Ezra Klein to discuss his new book, Critical, about how to free health-care reform from legislative gridlock.
May 14, 2008 | By Ezra Klein | web only

The FundamentaList (No. 34)
The Evangelical Manifesto makes an inauspicious debut, the Alliance Defense Fund seeks to legalize politics from the pulpit, and is Huckabee at the top of McCain's VP shortlist after all?
May 14, 2008 | By Sarah Posner | web only

Losing Lebanon
Violence has shaken Lebanon as Hezbollah, backed by Iran, resists efforts by the nation's pro-western government to weaken its power.
May 14, 2008 | By Gershom Gorenberg | web only

When West Virginia Mattered
This year West Virginia won't tell us much about the outcome of the Democratic primary. But it is a reminder of how this is not the first time we've seen a culturally alien candidate out to prove themselves to voters.
May 13, 2008 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

McCain's Judicial Hypocrisy
This week John McCain wholeheartedly embraced the idea of "judicial activism" -- a throughly mendacious concept that actually just means opposing judicial decisions that conservatives disagree with.
May 13, 2008 | By Paul Waldman | web only

Titans on the Mat
Some say politics in the United States can be explained by the Cronus theory -- parents stamping out their children's revolts at any cost. Has Barack Obama managed to overcome the resentments of older generations?
May 12, 2008 | By Harold Meyerson | web only

Israel at 60
To understand the co-existence of modern, cosmopolitan Israel with the Israel of permanent violent occupation, it's important to understand that Israel has locked itself into a box of fear. And that fear has become a danger in itself.
May 9, 2008 | By Daniel Levy | web only

The GOP's '08 Election Anxiety
The race to watch on Tuesday is a special election in Mississippi. The reddest of congressional districts is poised to elect a Democrat, sending yet another signal that Republicans are in serious trouble come November.
May 9, 2008 | By Terence Samuel | web only

The Meltdown Lowdown (No. 5)
Hillary Clinton's curious stance on the gas tax, adventures in JohnCare, and sub-prime analysts look to the past in order to misread the future.
May 8, 2008 | By Dean Baker | web only

The FundamentaList (No. 33)
Wead and Copeland join to denounce Grassley, Copeland and Huckabee prevent a schism, and a new evangelical manifesto angers the religious right.
May 7, 2008 | By Sarah Posner | web only

Is Clinton the Last to Know It's Over?
Barack Obama coupled a solid, double-digit win in North Carolina with a narrow defeat in Indiana to stall Hillary Clinton's recent momentum. The question now is whether Clinton can see the increasingly obvious end of her campaign.
May 7, 2008 | By Thomas F. Schaller | web only

How Deep Is Your Love?
Republicans are up to their usual tricks -- questioning the patriotism of their opponents. The media, as usual, is playing along because it lauds political success, not virtue.
May 6, 2008 | By Paul Waldman | web only

An End to Payday Loans?
Concern over the predatory practices of the payday lending industry has forged an unorthodox partnership in Virginia between religious, consumer-rights, and anti-poverty groups.
May 6, 2008 | By Kate Sheppard | web only

Dispatches From Flyover Country
Thanks to the primary, states like Indiana are finally getting some attention from national reporters and Democrats. Now if only they could learn that not every Midwesterner is an awestruck hillbilly.
May 6, 2008 | By Lauren Bruce | web only

The Undocumented American Dream
A new anthology of autobiographical stories written by undocumented immigrant college students serves as a reminder that we're neglecting some of the country's best and brightest.
May 5, 2008 | By Courtney E. Martin | web only

How Europe Avoided Our Mess
The credit crisis, which is sapping America's economic strength, was the result of an almost religious belief in deregulation whose excesses are now coming home to roost.
May 5, 2008 | By Robert Kuttner | web only

Subverting the Canon
In her new book, Wild Nights!, Joyce Carol Oates takes on the (largely male) Western literary canon in an attempt to sort out her ambivalence toward it and her place within it.
May 2, 2008 | By Britt Peterson | web only

Step Right Up Indiana
Like many late primary states, Indiana is feeling the flush of increased voter registration, national media attention and money from the DNC. Democrats are hopeful that this will auger well for down-ticket races in the fall.
May 2, 2008 | By Terence Samuel | web only

McCain's Delusional Tax Plan
The McCain Agenda: John McCain has adopted a tax plan that covers up massive giveaways to the rich with absurd assertions and faulty calculations.
May 2, 2008 | By Robert Gordon and James Kvaal | web only

Heat-Seeking Missives
A Senate committee seeks to limit the use of secretive national security letters -- if you receive one, you're not allowed to tell anybody, but you are obliged to comply with its request for information.
May 1, 2008 | By Brian Beutler | web only

The Meltdown Lowdown
(No. 4)
Clinton joins McCain in support of giveaways for oil companies, the housing market declines even faster, and McCain proposes gutting our health care system.
May 1, 2008 | By Dean Baker | web only

The Mideast Editing Wars
The hawkish pro-Israel group CAMERA's campaign to warp Wikipedia articles was ineffectual. But it's a warning not to trust the online encyclopedia -- and to be wary of partisan "accuracy" advocates in the Israeli-Palestinian Narrative War.
May 1, 2008 | By Gershom Gorenberg | web only

The Myth of Green McCain
The McCain Agenda: Despite the hype, McCain's environmental record shows a candidate who acknowledges the reality of climate change, but will do little to roll it back. A President McCain would only push for reforms that do not inconvenience businesses or trouble the conservative elite.
May 1, 2008 | By Kate Sheppard | web only