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Iowa. This morning the city of Davenport exists, for a brief period, at the very nexus of the race for president, as both candidates make appearances only a few blocks away from each other. (John Kerry meets with business and labor leaders in the River Center at 10:00 a.m. and George W. Bush leads a […]

As anyone who knows me knows, I have, since 9-11, taken the threat of terrorism seriously. Perhaps too seriously, even, making me the object of some amusement among my more cynical — or less nervous — friends. And I’m certainly willing to poke fun at the situation myself, as I did in this 2003 piece, […]

The official word out of the 2004 Democratic convention was that things were going to be positive, upbeat, and optimistic, putting a new face on a party that’s become known for negativity and “Bush hatred.” In reality, the convention was less positive than simply defensive. The endless repetitions of “strong” in its various permutations were […]

Sen. Patrick Leahy used an event held in his honor during the Democratic convention last week to talk about the importance of the First Amendment. “With the crew we have in charge right now, we would not be able to ratify the Bill of Rights,” Leahy said on July 27. He noted that after the […]

It would be hard to imagine a better convention week for the Democrats. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Max Cleland, among others, rose to genuine eloquence, offering an admirable narrative of John Kerry’s own story, setting the stage for last night. What’s more, the convention surely set a Democratic record for self-restraint. Even the grassroots activists […]

Clueless Fosdick is a gullible, bumbling detective in a new cartoon strip created by two University of Oregon law professors, Garrett Epps and Keith Aoki. Click here for a larger image of the cartoon. Clueless Fosdick, as he’s known, is based on a character called Fearless Fosdick, who was a parody of Dick Tracy, appearing […]

Yesterday, in the middle of the Democratic national convention, came the news that Carmine De Sapio — the last boss of the old Tammany Hall machine, the organization of the Manhattan Democratic Party that dominated New York politics from the 1860s through the 1950s, more or less — had died at 95. De Sapio fell […]

Don’t miss the wrap-up of The American Prospect‘s round-the-clock convention coverage. Below, you’ll find our blog from the climax of the convention on Thursday, as well as links to the earlier coverage. And we’ve got much more coverage than just the blog. Take a look at these great stories from Todd Gitlin, Robert Kuttner, Michael […]

The movie was born of a fateful accident, director Rithy Panh told me over coffee in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last year. That film is S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, Panh’s harrowing documentary about the ultra-Maoist movement’s main detention center, a Phnom Penh high school that was transformed into an interrogation, torture, and death camp, […]

John Kerry would be only the second American president of the Roman Catholic faith. The first, of course, was John F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s election was a moment of great celebration among American Catholics and among the Church hierarchy — Boston’s Cardinal Richard Cushing was particularly close to the Kennedy family — even though Kennedy had […]