Garance Franke-Ruta

PITCHING YOUR BRAND TO THE GODLY. At first I thought the invitation to this was spam, but no, there really is such a thing: The 2nd Annual Faith Based Marketing Summit is taking place in Dallas come mid-April, combining the two great American traditions of Godly people and sales. Featured speaker last year: Greg Stielstra, […]

YOU WIN SOME, YOU WIN MORE. Another Democratic victory in the Senate: President Bush on Wednesday withdrew the ambassadorial nomination of businessman Sam Fox after Democrats denounced Fox for giving money to a controversial conservative group that undermined Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. “Sam Fox had every opportunity to disavow the politics of personal […]

AND TONY, TOO. Geez, bad times all around. White House spokesman Tony Snow has had, like Elizabeth Edwards, a recurrence of his cancer: White House press secretary Tony Snow, who has become the face of the Bush presidency over the last year, has cancer again. Snow’s deputy, Dana M. Perino, broke into tears at an […]

THE FEW, THE PROUD. Michael Crowley digs up this awesome anecdote about Hillary Clinton (and yes, I’ll get to Ezra‘s item, just in a different post) in the process of looking at her foreign policy views: in her late twenties, Hillary Rodham Clinton briefly attempted to enlist in the U.S. Marines. That last fact — […]

THE WAGES OF BUNGLING. Sen. Joe Biden took to The Miami Herald on Sunday to catalog the disastrous consequences of administration bungling in the Middle East. In the Palestinian Territories, the administration overruled Prime Minister Sharon and many Palestinians and insisted that the January 2006 legislative elections go forward, despite having failed to empower Palestinian […]

THE NEW UNILATERALISM. Robin Wright has the piece I’ve been waiting for explaining the genesis and impact of the new U.S.-led, voluntary, private-sector international sanctions on Iran, which are reportedly starting to have some real bite: More than 40 major international banks and financial institutions have either cut off or cut back business with the […]

A FINAL WORD ON HILLARY. For this round of the debate, at least. Let me begin with an anecdote. A bunch of us Tappers went for drinks the other day, and Hillary Clinton came up. It was a mixed crowd, but, reflecting the magazine’s writing employees, mainly men. As the conversation turned to ’08, a […]

WHAT IS STAGE IV BREAST CANCER? For those looking to understand Elizabeth Edwards‘ diagnosis, David Brown, who was trained as a physician before becoming one of the nation’s top medical reporters, provides this clinical and sobering summary: Both Edwards and her husband were upbeat and said they would continue campaigning. She said she is “completely […]

CONFLICT OF SOMETHING. Howard Kurtz today tells the complicated tale of the departure of the Los Angeles Times editorial page editor over vague conflict-of-interest accusations that led other editors to spike the already completed Sunday Currents section. The guest editor of that section, Brian Grazer, was apparently represented by a public relations firm that employs […]

AWFUL. I am hearing the same rumors. If so, it’s very sad. I only like candidates to drop out because they are crushed to a bloody pulp, as is the normal pattern, and not for any heart-rending non-political reasons. Still hoping it’s not true — especially because Edwards has, with the Fox News pushback, finally […]