Friday on the Dish, Andrew took McCain to task for betraying his own presidential slogans to place country first, before calling out Rand Paul’s blatant opportunism in the Hagel filibuster. He delved deeper into Benedict XVI’s abandonment of renewal for sheer reaction, sparred with a reader on why he prefers “Burma” to “Myanmar,” and answered … Continue reading The Weekly Wrap
People have been talking about Obama’s new swagger. I can see that in this speech, but I don’t see an aggressive partisan attack. — Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) February 13, 2013 Today on the Dish, Andrew spent the night live-blogging the State of the Union. Blog reax here, tweet reax here and meme of the night … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
Today on the Dish, we again spent much of the day covering the ongoing situation in Gaza, as Andrew was less than optimistic about the conflict's perpetual irresolution, then tore into Walter Russell Mead for seeking an "Israeli Sherman". Karl Vick examined the mind games at work from both sides, Goldblog and others offered their … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
Today on the Dish we had another busy day of Bain coverage. In this post, Andrew cornered the Romney campaign for being unable to quell two major concerns: why he made a six figure salary for three years while claiming to have no active involvement in Bain and why he told the SEC in 2001 that he remained the CEO. Here we brought more bloggers into the inquiry and asked pro-Romney Catholics if they were comfortable with a candidate who had invested in a company that disposed of dead fetuses. Here and here we clashed with WaPo fact-checker Glenn Kessler over his continued support for Romney's version of events. Here we did the same with Factcheck.org. Here we featured Dish readers with legal expertise and here we highlighted a reader with especially wise words. Late in the day, Andrew took stock of the situation in light of new damning evidence and then reacted to Romney's vehement but vacuous words against Obama. For its part, the Obama ad team made hay of the Bain story.
Zooming out, Obama's slight lead in the Gallup poll came down to an uptick in non-whites, and the president's general likeability endures, in spite of his approval ratings. Readers lent perspective on Romney's NAACP speech with a shudder-worthy roundup of white Democrats pandering to black audiences, Andrew argued that the most offensive thing about Romney's speech was the suggestion that 40 million Americans' access to insurance is "unnecessary," and the rumored Condi-as-veep idea would seriously compromise Romney's pro-life position. Joel Alicia explored Roberts' conservative bona fides, while others wondered whether the liberal love affair with Anthony Kennedy would finally die. And George H W Bush asked "who the hell is Gover Norquist, anyway?"
Readers added nuance to yesterday's discussion about the Mormon enthusiasm for profit and pushed back on Marriott's motivations for abandoning hotel porn. In economic coverage, we saw evidence that outsourcing doesn't kill American jobs, showed how the Olympics brings a mixed bag of economic benefits to host countries, and examined the sale of Digg that went for a fraction of its former worth. Tiny apartments in NYC might see a resurgence soon and it's increasingly illegal to rent out your home.
In assorted coverage, a California ballot measure to ban capital punishment framed it in budgetary terms, a NYC food truck offered a conspicuous consumption-tastic burger, and Margaret Talbot found that sex-segregated classrooms are hard to justify. Andrew, in a video for Big Think, proclaimed that Abraham Lincoln was one of the two greatest gay Americans (the other: Walt Whitman). If the disenfranchisement of felons, which disproportionately hurts African-Americans, ended, Florida would no longer be a swing state. This post explained how liquids tossed at airport security are disposed of, a little perspective on shark attacks here, and 3,000-year-old peat-bog mummies left scientists scratching their heads. We commemorated mad poet John Clare on his birthday. MHB here and VFYW here. Try not to hold your nose at this FOTD.
The rest of the week after the jump:
Today on the Dish, Andrew unpacked Romney’s role in Bain Capital, homing in on the need for Romney’s tax returns to clear up the confusion. The core question raised by the Boston Globe scoop is why Romney received $100,000 a year to run the fund when he had already transitioned to the Olympics. Romney’s financial past got … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
Friday on the Dish, Andrew despaired at the right's approach to climate change (follow-up here), found common ground with Rupert Murdoch on taxes, defended Obamacare on liberty grounds, praised the Bishops' challenge to Paul Ryan, and patiently explained to Mitt that sexual orientations were not preferences. We grabbed reax to the crappy jobs numbers, found some surprisingly … Continue reading The Weekly Wrap
Today on the Dish, Andrew debunked Jose Rodriguez's "big boy pants" case for torture, reflected on Ben-Zion Netanyahu's life, and discovered Israel's sassy gay friend. We predicted Israeli elections in the near future, broke down the GOP's excuses on bin Laden and Obama, listened to a defense of intervention in Syria, pondered the quandary created … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
By Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Friday on the Dish, Andrew explored Prime Minister Cameron's truly conservative view of Obama, understood Romney's campaign strategy as a Seinfeldian endeavor, matched the campaign directly to its demographics, called for more debates, marvelled at Coulter's sanity, and saw Santorum cross a true Dittohead redline. We delved into the roots of Romney's lies, chomped onsome popcorn … Continue reading The Weekly Wrap
Today on the Dish, Andrew framed the election as a choice about a war over Iran, fit Cameron's state visit into Obama's reelection campaign, parsed the poll suggesting an Obama blowout, and found Santorum's nomination strategy in the video above. We compiled reax to the Deep South primary, wondered if Santorum could win Illinois, debated Rick's chances … Continue reading The Daily Wrap
Friday on the Dish, Andrew dissented from MSNBC's decision to fire Pat Buchanan, exhorted Obama supporters to take the President to task for his war on medical marijuana (follow-up here), reexplained his position on the birth control mandate, corrected misstep on the birth control panel, and declared it "increasingly clear" that Romney was a terrible politician. … Continue reading The Weekly Wrap
