GIULIANI AND RELIGIOUS PANDERING. I agree with Ezra and Mike Tomasky that Rudy Giuliani would be a primarily right-wing president. Mike makes a strong case over at TNR today that Giuliani’s supposed political moderation during his mayoral tenure was really just a demonstration of his ideological malleability. Mike writes, This came home to me in […]
Ben Adler
Ben Adler is a senior editor at City & State NY. He previously worked for Politico, The Nation, and Reuters, and he has written for The Washington Post and The New Republic, among other publications.
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DAVID BROOKS DOES ANDY ROONEY:
DAVID BROOKS DOES ANDY ROONEY: In a typical display of the utter vacuity of conervative punditry in general and his shtick in particular, David Brooks wastes his New York Times column on a cranky, silly rant today. Instead of addressing any real crises in the world, like the escalating civil war in Iraq, or even […]
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WHAT WE LOST WITH VILSACK:
WHAT WE LOST WITH VILSACK: Of course everyone’s initial reaction to Tom Vilsack dropping out was to assume that nothing of substance was missing. Just another moderate technocrat to fail, right? But as Brad Plumer pointed out yesterday, Vilsack did have one thing going for him, “hands down, the most ambitious energy and climate-change plan […]
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VILSACK, RICHARDSON, AND MATT.
VILSACK, RICHARDSON, AND MATT. I think Tom Vilsack‘s departure from the race provides an answer to the question Matt posed in his column the other day: Why is a popular second term governor from a swing state, like Bill Richardson, not being taken seriously by the national media? As Matt points out, those are the […]
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THE MYTH OF GUILIANI’S FOREIGN POLICY CRED:
THE MYTH OF GUILIANI’S FOREIGN POLICY CRED: Jonathan Chait argues convincingly that Rudy Giuliani is totally undeserving of the widespread assumption that he is some sort of expert on fighting global terrorism. I would differ slightly in my reasons though. Chait says, The normal rule in American politics is that if you run for president […]
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NADER SPOILERISM:
NADER SPOILERISM: My post on the Ralph Nader documentary received an interesting range of comments in response. A few canards were raised, though, that I think need to be refuted as we prepare for the unholy prospect of a Nader ’08 run. First, Nader supporters seem to assume that saying Nader cost Gore Florida and […]
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AN UNREASONABLE ARGUMENT:
AN UNREASONABLE ARGUMENT: So I saw “An Unreasonable Man,” the documentary on Ralph Nader that is coming out this week. From the previews I was expecting a sharply produced even-handed examination of Nader and his legacy. What I got instead was a kitschy piece of propaganda. The film, which was filled with unintentionally comical images […]
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WHITE HISTORY MONTH?:
WHITE HISTORY MONTH?: I think Gary Younge is really onto something in his column in this week’s Nation. Writing about how February is Black History Month, he arges that there is a crucial component missing: examination of who the pepetrators of racism themselves have been. For instance, there is much discussion of Rosa Parks and […]
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HRC AND THE FOREIGN POLICY ELITE.
HRC AND THE FOREIGN POLICY ELITE. Far be it from me to disagree with our erstwhile boss man, Mike Tomasky, but I was intrigued by his post on “Comment is Free,” the online opinion page of the Guardian. Mike argues that the reason Hillary Clinton refuses to admit that she was wrong to support the […]
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FALSE NOTES FROM GUILANI’S HOUSE ORGAN.
FALSE NOTES FROM GUILANI’S HOUSE ORGAN. During Rudy Giuliani‘s tenure as mayor of New York City, the conservative periodical City Journal, associated with the Manhattan Institute, functioned as a sort of house organ. They justified Giuliani’s policies with a neoconservative critique of the welfare state and urban underclass social norms, while helping to churn out […]