View image | gettyimages.com The primary game, I’m afraid, is rigged. In a perfect world, all contenders would start from the same point, equally able to assemble a compelling candidacy and make their case to the voters. In this world, however, the reporters who cover the race have already decided that only a few candidates […]
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Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Wrath of Nature Edition
View image | gettyimages.com View from Puerto Varas, southern Chile, of a high column of ash and lava spewing from the Calbuco volcano, on April 22, 2015. Chile’s Calbuco volcano erupted on Wednesday, spewing a giant funnel of ash high into the sky near the southern port city of Puerto Montt and triggering a red […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
The Trouble With Drone Strikes
Today, President Obama revealed that a drone strike in Pakistan killed two aid workers who were being held by al Qaeda, one an American named Warren Weinstein, and the other an Italian named Giovanni Lo Porto. This is obviously generating news because there was an American killed, while the accidental deaths of innocent civilians don’t […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Don’t Get Bored With the 2016 Campaign Yet
Yesterday, The New Yorker‘s George Packer pronounced himself bored with the 2016 campaign in particular and American politics in general, and though I think he’s wrong, I understand where he’s coming from. But if those of us who have devoted our lives to politics can’t find enough about it to sustain our interest, what hope […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Choo-Choo Edition
View image | gettyimages.com This is a Central Japan Railway maglev train returning to the station after setting a new speed record of 603 kilometers per hour, or 374 mph. And you pay extra to get on a pokey Acela just to get to New York 15 minutes faster.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Sincerity Is Overrated
View image | gettyimages.com We spend an awful lot of time in campaigns talking about a set of personal qualities candidates may or may not possess that revolve around honesty. Is the candidate truthful, honest, sincere, candid, authentic? The New York Times asked yesterday whether Hillary Clinton’s focus on inequality was sincere: “the former secretary […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Only Connect, Says Rick Perry, Only Connect
It’s a little strange that Rick Perry has gotten so little attention so far in the presidential race. OK, so his 2012 run was kind of a disaster, but the guy was the governor of the country’s second-biggest state for 14 years, and he’s as conservative as they come. Why should he get less notice […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, You Are Very Small Edition
This photo was taken from the International Space Station by astronaut Barry Wilmore. You can see Lake Michigan in the upper left hand corner; those lights at its edge are Chicago. Courtesy of nasa.gov.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The GOP, On the Road to Coolsville
View image | gettyimages.com Assuming Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee next year, we already know that the Republican candidate will be younger than the Democrat, maybe by just a few years (if it’s Jeb Bush or Rick Perry, both in their 60s), but maybe by quite a bit. Marco Rubio is not only […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Scott Walker Just Won the Koch Sweepstakes
View image | gettyimages.com For some time now, the smart money in political circles has been on Scott Walker becoming the Republican nominee for president-even though primary voters hadn’t yet thought much about him. If you look at primary polls, up until October of last year, Walker was at around 5 percent support, which is […]
