In the debate about America and Iraq, two questions keep getting confused. First, does the United States have grounds to remove Saddam Hussein? And second, is an American invasion the best available course of action, after we balance all the likelyrisks and gains? The answer to the first question is a resounding yes. The Iraqi […]
Robert Kuttner
Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. His latest book is Notes for Next Time: Surviving Tyranny, Redeeming America. Follow Bob at his site, robertkuttner.com, and on Twitter.
Posted inArticle
Hero Worship
Like other Americans, I found the loss of the space shuttle Columbia tragic for the individual astronauts and their families, poignant as an exploratory setback and compelling as a news story. But something was off about the relentless, repetitive, almost obsessive media coverage. What does it say about us as a people? The network and […]
Posted inArticle
Tipping Point
Will a war once again bail out a faltering presidency? Or will it crystallize for voters all of the contradictions of the Bush regime? Bush’s stock was not particularly high on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. The economy was wobbly. He had alienated Republican moderates and sacrificed GOP control of the Senate. He was […]
Posted inArticle
Executive Privilege
President Bush, tone deaf to irony, chose Martin Luther King’s birthday week to oppose affirmative action. His position on the Michigan case now before the Supreme Court seems high-minded until you look at the specifics. “I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education,” Bush declared. But he termed the Michigan […]
Posted inFeatures
Comment: Never Mind
One of the most astonishing recent events is the spectacle of Bill Richardson, formerly Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations, literally mediating between the Bush administration and the North Koreans. Even weirder is how this anomalous piece of freelancing came about. The North Koreans had enjoyed a constructive relationship with Richardson, who was recently […]
Posted inArticle
Class Act
Now that President Bush has a fight on his hands over his proposed tax and budget program, the usual suspects are insisting that anyone who challenges these plans is promoting class warfare. Defenders of progressive taxation stand accused of resenting the rich, who presumably achieved their wealth through good, old-fashioned hard work. Moreover, the entrepreneurial […]
Posted inArticle
Bogus Stimulus
If ever there were a president who needed a war, it is George W. Bush. And if ever an opposition party needed to start behaving like an opposition, it is the Democrats. The economy is faltering; Bush’s foreign policy is a mess; his domestic program is aimed more at rewarding favored interest groups than solving […]
Posted inArticle
Ball Drop
Happy New Year, George W. Bush. You enjoyed an Election Day blowout. Your popularity ratings are holding up nicely. But 2003 may not be as happy a year for you as 2002. For starters, there’s the economy. It looks like the new year will bring a “jobless recovery,” if not a recession. Consumer spending, which […]
Posted inFeatures
Comment: Having It Both Ways on Race
The Trent Lott affair reminds us of the American capacity for mass denial, particularly where race is concerned. Republican racism, certainly, is an open secret. It isn’t limited to good-old-boy senators from Mississippi or South Carolina who are relics from a broadly discredited past. Ever since Lyndon Johnson declared, “We shall overcome,” and Richard Nixon […]
Posted inArticle
Best for Last
In the end, the problem was not Al Gore’s stands on the issues. The problem was Gore. The difficulty was not Gore as a person but Gore as a politician. People who know Gore well say he is a delightful, relaxed and funny man in private. His kids are said to be among the genuinely […]
