Am I crazy, or is there an anti-Obama column hidden between the words of David Brooks‘ anti-Palin column today, the one Adam wrote about? Here are some exceprts from Brooks. The emphasis is mine. Experienced leaders can certainly blunder if their minds have rigidified (see: Rumsfeld, Donald), but the records of leaders without long experience […]
Dana Goldstein
Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.
A SMART OBAMA WEB AD AIMS TO INCREASE YOUTH TURNOUT.
Just noticed that the Obama campaign is running a very smart, targeted advertisement on the website Pandora, a free internet radio service used mostly by younger folks. The ad is targeted to your geographic location, which the site asks you to provide when you register. I live in Washington, D.C., so alongside my music selections, […]
THE ALTERNATIVE TO “DRILL BABY, DRILL.”
The price of gas fell precipitously today. In the short term, that’s good news for consumers. But in terms of reaching a public opinion tipping point in favor of mass transit, this is a danger point, especially as Congress considers how much federal funding transit deserves in the upcoming years. There have been some hopeful […]
COMPARING THE TWO NATIONAL SERVICE PLANS.
It’s certainly true that Obama‘s national service plan is about a hundred times more detailed than McCain‘s. But to be fair, McCain does have a record of leadership on national service, albeit one that focuses much more on the military and organizations that promote military values (obedience and patriotism) than on the social justice model […]
THE TRANSIT FRONT.
If, like me, you are suffering from a case of Acute Electionitis (exhaustion and irritation at the mere mention of the words “Palin,” “lipstick,” or “poll”), I highly recommend the Drum Major Institute’s DMI Blog, which focuses on “Politics, policy, and the American Dream.” That’s code language for “pure progressive wonkery.” Last week in Minneapolis, […]
ELECTION FATIGUE.
This is probably the dumbest AP story I have ever read — and the Obama campaign is emailing it around. I mean, really. Who cares who purchased Meghan McCain‘s car? It’s all Cindy‘s money anyhow. LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The head of the United Auto Workers union says Republican presidential nominee John McCain lost credibility […]
TEAM MCCAIN WOOING RON PAUL. WHY?
It’s almost laughable that Phil Gramm is trying to convince Ron Paul to make a McCain endorsement. I attended the Paul “Rally for Liberty” in Minneapolis last week, and if I can tell you one thing about Paul and his supporters, it’s that the only person they despise more than Barack Obama is John McCain […]
SHOULD THE OBAMAS SEND THEIR DAUGHTERS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL?
Over at the New York Times‘ new Education Watch blog, commenters are taking Sandra Tsing Loh to task for suggesting that the Obamas, Bidens, and McCains, like most affluent and educated families, would have given their local public schools a huge lift by actually enrolling their children in them. Don’t judge their choices, the commenters […]
CHILD SUPPORT SHOULD BE USED TO SUPPORT CHILDREN.
Every state in the nation allows wage garnishment for child support, meaning employers can be asked to withhold a percentage of a deadbeat dad or mom’s paycheck to go toward the care of their dependent children. But did you know that this year’s Congressional stimulus payments can also be garnished for child support? An Associated […]
THE SEGREGATIONIST IMPULSE.
I finally got around to reading David Frum‘s thoughtful essay on inequality and “the vanishing Republican voter,” with which I mostly agree. I was especially intrigued by the section on Prince William County in Virginia, an exurb of Washington, D.C. Frum correctly identifies immigration as a key issue making Prince William white voters feel disgruntled […]

