Adam Serwer

Who would have thought that the most egregious use of the P.O.W. card would come not from John McCain, but from George W. Bush? Fellow citizens: If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will. McCain is […]

I’m sort of surprised at the level of empathy shown by conservatives towards the Palin family in the wake of Governor Palin‘s daughter’s pregnancy, especially given the dehumanizing language the right generally uses to talk about young single mothers and babies born out of wedlock. Conservatives would probably argue that this situation is different given […]

The McCain campaign has been pushing hard on the idea that Governor Palin has “more executive experience” than Joe Biden or Barack Obama, because she was a mayor and then a governor. By this metric, she also has more experience than John McCain. At any rate, this was Obama’s response to a question in this […]

Apparently, Governor Palin was once a member of a political party in Alaska that advocates secession from the United States of America, called the Alaska Independence Party. Its platform calls for the defense of “states rights,” to “seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people […]

This post has been updated. Reading today’s column, you might think David Brooks wasn’t anywhere near a television or a computer yesterday, if not for a reference to Governor Palin‘s daugher’s pregnancy. The column reads like he wrote it last Friday, when everyone was still buying the spin about Palin being a budget hawk type […]

So at least two women in America are “finished” as props in the McCain campaign, but don’t be surprised if they make a cameo at the convention, where folks know to clap for a phony tribute. A description of newly minted running mate Sarah Palin’s now adjusted remarks from MSNBC: After that, she went back […]

Stephanie McCrummen at The Washington Post has a pretty interesting article on the so-called “Africa 2s,” (a term coined by business professor Vijay Mahajan) middle income consumers in countries like Uganda who are participating in some fundamental changes in how young Africans see themselves. For example, although older Ugandans were forced to see themselves in […]

While Gustav seems to have downgraded to a category 2 storm, there is still concern that it could overwhelm and flood communities in the Gulf Coast. The storm surge is expected to go as high as eight to twelve feet, and my understanding is that the levees west of New Orleans are only seven feet […]

Updated: I meant creationism, not evolution. If Sarah Palin wanted to teach evolution in schools that would be a good thing. John McCain sure does have a lot of stenographers in the press, perhaps none more enthusiastic than David Broder. Ron Fournier once got offered a job, but Broder does it for the love: John […]

From news reports, it looks as though local and federal officials including Mayor Nagin of New Orleans and Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, as well as the folks at FEMA are far better prepared. Although once again there were problems procuring transportation, that seems to have been solved. A big difference seems to be that […]