Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right By Al Franken, E.P. Dutton, 379 pages, $24.95 The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception By David Corn, Crown, 337 pages, $24.00 The Book on Bush: How George W. Bush (Mis)leads America By Eric […]
Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias is a senior editor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a former Prospect staff writer, and the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.
Follow @mattyglesias
Posted inArticle
Guarded Pessimism
John Edwards is optimistic. Not only is he optimistic, he’s not afraid to say so, peppering virtually every public appearance with references to his sunny outlook. And he’s proud of it, too. “The cynics didn’t build this country,” the stump speech goes. “Optimists built this country.” Speaking to supporters after the polls closed in New […]
Posted inArticle
Guarded Pessimism
John Edwards is optimistic. Not only is he optimistic, he’s not afraid to say so, peppering virtually every public appearance with references to his sunny outlook. And he’s proud of it, too. “The cynics didn’t build this country,” the stump speech goes. “Optimists built this country.” Speaking to supporters after the polls closed in New […]
Posted inArticle
Snake Oil
Just one year after his now-infamous claim that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy African uranium for use in Iraq’s apparently nonexistent nuclear-weapons program, President George W. Bush has once again chosen to paint a picture of the State of the Union — and, indeed, the world — that is essentially fraudulent. Like last year, […]
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Nit Picklering
A Dec. 10 wire story took a look at a recent Democratic debate and concluded that Democrats “sometimes leave out the facts” in their critiques of the Bush administration. For example: “[S]everal of the nine candidates criticized the tax cuts George W. Bush pushed through Congress. But none mentioned that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan […]
Posted inSpecial Report
The Verdict on Vouchers
Observers marveling at President George W. Bush’s ability to push a radical agenda through a closely divided Congress have tended to attribute the administration’s success to the impressive party discipline within the Republican congressional caucus. And impressive it is — both historically and, especially, in comparison to the anarchic behavior of the Democrats during the […]
Posted inFeatures
Bad Max
Observers marveling at President George W. Bush’s ability to push a radical agenda through a closely divided Congress have tended to attribute the administration’s success to the impressive party discipline within the Republican congressional caucus. And impressive it is — both historically and, especially, in comparison to the anarchic behavior of the Democrats during the […]
Posted inDepartments
Friends of Spam
It’s no secret that much of the Democratic establishment fears Howard Dean. For months, rumors have abounded that party insiders will mount some kind of last-ditch effort to deny him the nomination he seems ever closer to securing. One natural focus of such speculation has been the 715 “superdelegates,” party mandarins appointed to the Democratic […]
Posted inFeatures
Super Hype
It’s no secret that much of the Democratic establishment fears Howard Dean. For months, rumors have abounded that party insiders will mount some kind of last-ditch effort to deny him the nomination he seems ever closer to securing. One natural focus of such speculation has been the 715 “superdelegates,” party mandarins appointed to the Democratic […]
Posted inSpecial Report
Press One for Better Service
Something was wrong on my credit-card bill, so I placed a call to the issuing bank’s customer-service line. The computerized voice told me to press “1” for customer-service inquiries on existing accounts, then to press “3” for credit cards. Following that, I entered my account number, and then my personal-identification number. After listening to an […]
