Garance Franke-Ruta

WHAT’S UP IN WAZIRISTAN. I asked a source with expertise in the region for thoughts about the David Ignatius Waziristan column that we’ve been discussing today. The reply: Nothing in there that’s new. I don’t think Washington is lacking for disgruntled ex-gov’t employees with ideas how to solve this crisis or that… of course, Crumpton […]

FROM LI-LO TO LOST IN SPACE. Geez, is nothing sacred? Apparently not, reports the AP: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At least twice, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk, an aviation weekly reported Thursday, citing a special panel studying astronaut health. […]

LIKELY STORY. I’d like to second everything Matt has to say here about the appalling brow-beating the conservative press has been giving The New Republic over its controversial “Baghdad Diarist.” But let’s not neglect the role of The New York Times in fomenting doubts, either. An additional reason people have huffed and puffed about whether […]

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? I didn’t think it was possible for an American politician’s ratings to get this low, but Chris Orr notes over at The Plank that President Bush has just a 1 percent approval rating among Democrats in the latest ARG poll. A uniter, not a divider, indeed. –Garance Franke-Ruta

THE CUBA QUESTION. One final debate note. A political practioner friend who’s no Hillary Clinton shill pointed out something very interesting in Barack Obama‘s debate answer on meeting with anathema regimes . Hillary nailed him…for a…reason, subsumed within the larger distinction between their answers: The Cuba issue. It would be bracing if a Democratic candidate […]

BRING IT ON. You know, I’d agree with Ezra about the pointedness of the questions if it weren’t for the fact that the candidates, in the main, handled them so beautifully. I think one of the reasons the Vietnam question stood out so much is that it was directed to Mike Gravel, and answered by […]

CITIZEN MEDIA PROS. Hey, will you look at that. You know those funny men with the thick Southern accents who asked the Democratic presidential contenders last night if their feelings were hurt by the way people keep talking about Al Gore joining the race? Turns out they’re a regular online comedy duo, Red State Update, […]

QUICK VERDICT, THE CANDIDATES. Barack Obama owned this debate. He started off with a series of clear, crisp answers that deftly turned questions to his advantage, and he was doing that Obama thing that he does where he manages to look luminous and transcendent, as if he just stepped out of a Wordsworth poem, trailing […]

QUICK VERDICT, THE VIDEOS. This was a fantastic, fascinating, illuminating, moving debate — a true realization of the potential of the new technologies to bring the voices of ordinary citizens into the political process. The citizens in the videos made every issue more real, and every answer more serious. They added levity, and creativity, and […]

BEST. DEBATE. EVER. This is the best Democratic debate so far. The questions are sharp, funny, thoughtful, and focused on issues that too infrequently get an airing. And, best of all, the debate, now half-over, has focused on domestic issues for a change. They should do this format more often. –Garance Franke-Ruta