Tag Archives: Election 2008
Let the King Reign
Yesterday’s Times profile on the history of that quintessentially American tradition — the peaceful, loyal succession — ought to raise a question for today’s Democrats. Has the tradition been followed in this administration, in fact as well as in form? And if not, what can we say about it? Consider Senator McCain’s dignified concession speech that night […]
Chemistry, Timing, and the Transformative Presidency
Certainly without knowing it, President Obama, in this pre-inaugural picture plucked from the New York Times, manages to pull off a fair impression of the famous classical statue, the Augustus of the Primaporta, matching almost perfectly the second Caesar’s raised arm, held either to indicate a more prosperous future and recovery from Rome’s century of civil […]
Fiddling While the Country Burns: A Story Arc for 2008-10
How did it come to this? In 2008, we, Democrats, won a landslide victory, with the public deserting the cynicism and policymaking bumbling of the Republican Party in droves for the promise of optimism, progress, and reasoned solutions to complicated problems. Today, we’re back to square one. Maybe worse. When the sitting President can’t sell […]
Election 2008, Five Weeks Later: Rev. Wright & Joe the Plumber
Although both issues are moot, yesterday there were two big stories on two of Election 2008′s biggest non-candidate “characters,” Joe the Plumber & the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. First, ABC played the ad that the McCain camp prepared, but never aired, indicting Barack Obama for his connection with Jeremiah Wright: I’m unsure of the damage this […]
Sixty Within Reach (But Not Likely)
Holy filibuster-proof majority, Batman! Mark Begich beat out Ted Stevens, putting an end to the GOP’s longest-sitting Senator, and stymying any nascent scheming Governor Palin had at getting herself a Senate seat this year. That puts the Democratic Senators at fifty-eight. And, Franken goes into a recount against Coleman for Minnesota’s seat, and for Jim […]
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