Author: Andrew Sullivan

All Politics Is Local, Even In France

Bagehot finds Cameron's championing EU membership for Turkey tone deaf to the politics of various EU countries:

In Germany…it is a big deal that if Turkey did achieve membership in 2025, say, it is projected to have a larger population than any other EU country. That would give Turkey, overnight, the largest delegation of members of the European Parliament. That profoundly shocks Germans, who take the EP rather seriously. In Britain, many people could not care less if a delegation of chimpanzees were elected to the Strasbourg assembly.

In France, for example, it is a source of profound angst that Turkey is full of farmers. How on earth could the Common Agricultural Policy survive the cost of subsidising tens of millions of Turks, it is asked in Paris. In Britain (and in Sweden), few would mourn the CAP if it vanished.

In Brussels, it is common to hear grumbling that British support for Turkish membership is essentially a plot to broaden the EU so much that it can never achieve deeper political and economic union. I think that is unfair, but not wholly. There are certainly British Eurosceptic whose support for Turkey reminds me of the old adage: you can also kill a cat with cream. If some of them could admit China, I suspect they would.

Didn’t We Know All This Already? Ctd

Andrew Exum yawns at Wikileaks's latest in today's NYT. Kevin Sullivan perks up:

Exum would have us all believe that the WikiLeaks disclosures are both ho-hum and irresponsible journalism. Both may be true, but if there's been any kind of journalistic failure here it began not with WikiLeaks, but with the pundits and policy makers who have failed to enhance public understanding of the war. There was no need for such debate and education however, because a bipartisan consensus had already congealed around a counterinsurgency strategy.

Exum accuses WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of being an activist with an agenda, which is no doubt true. But is Assange really the only one with an agenda here, or does his agenda simply not sit well will the COINdinistas?

On Substance, Obama Still Leads

An encouraging survey for the president that deals with broad policies, not individual controversies. This leapt out at me. When asked to choose whose economic policies they would pick between Bush's and Obama's, here's the money number:

The number of independents who said neither administration's policies would help was higher than the overall sample, 27 percent. Forty-three percent of independents favored Obama's policies, while 20 percent favored Bush's.

I have a simple suggestion for Democratic candidates: ask which of Bush's policies does their Republican opponent oppose? Keep asking. If they say spending, ask them what they intend to cut. And keep asking.

When Lightning Strikes Slowly, Ctd

A reader writes:

Craig Shimala posts some of the most interesting videos I've found online. Here he set up his camera during a thunderstorm … and managed to catch lightning strike the three tallest buildings in our city of Chicago. That the three buildings were struck simultaneously makes this worth sharing. Beautifully edited.

And the music is off Sufjan Stevens' Illinois.

Email Of The Day

A reader writes:

Contra your reader's assertion, there is at least one parent who uses those words (and it was you who sent them to me just yesterday, via your post):

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war?

PALIN: You know, I don't know if that was my exact quote…. It's an unfortunate thing, because war is hell and I hate war, and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women, to fight for our country, for democracy, for our freedoms.

The Slow Death Of Cap-And-Trade, Ctd

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Dave Roberts doesn't think much could have been done differently. Bernstein penned a post-mortem last week:

It's worth noting that on a legislative time scale, cap-and-trade was really very, very, new, and most important laws tend to take a long time, often spanning several Congresses, to pass.  Looking back…in 1992, global warming was a two-sentence throwaway at the end of the Democratic Party platform.  If anything, it's even less prominent in 1996. In 2000, the Al Gore platform contained a fair amount of climate rhetoric — but proposed almost no specific actions.  No change in 2004: plenty of rhetoric, but only vague calls to action, mostly focusing on international agreements.  No cap-and-trade, no carbon tax.  So for Democrats, the idea that Congressional action is needed to limit carbon emissions as a core party principle only goes back to the 2008 campaign.

(Image: The Daily What suggests an novel solution to the crisis.)

The View From Your Recession

A reader writes:

I worked hard to build a career that led to becoming a vice president of an international design firm.  And I worked hard to build a successful business for the seven years after I left them.  My industry, the architectural design industry, and especially large design firms, have seen cumulative layoffs from anywhere between 40 to 70% during the last three years. 

I'm a single parent with primary custody and I don't receive child support.  Also, I don't get unemployment because I've been self employed. One other also: I don't have a college degree.

I'd never had to apply for a job since I was in my late teens/early twenties.  I was lucky enough over the last twenty-five plus years that people recognized my hard work and skills and offered me jobs before I ever even looked at want ads.  In the last fourteen months, after I realized I could no longer make a living in my specialty, I haven't had so much luck. 

I've applied for hundreds of jobs.  During that time, I've worked in a warehouse, written copy for websites and hammered nails as a carpenter.

All of those jobs were project based meaning no long term prospects or benefits or unemployment eligibility.  To be clear, I have not been fired or quit any of those jobs. The healthcare insurance for me and my son has gone up 29% in the meantime.  I used to eke into a six figure income.  Now I'm happy to get a short term $15 an hour job because it means, with lots of Ramen noodles and little air conditioning/heat, I can keep a roof over my son's head.

Some politicians, and the number of them seems to grow daily, are claiming I'm lazy because I couldn't get a job.  I've found jobs!  None are of the type the politicians are alluding to apparently. McDonald's or entry/mid level employers won't hire me because I've had too much success in my past and others won't because, despite my proven accomplishments, I don't have a college degree. 

I'm not a special case.  There are hundreds of thousands of people like me.  We're not taking year-long vacations!  We're scared about not having the gas or a car to get our kids to school or to the extremely rare job interview (I've only had three in over a year).  We're spending sleepless nights worrying about nourishing our kids so they aren't distracted in school by hunger pangs, and how to buy new shoes as they grow out of the last pair, and how to not show them our deep anxiety about what next month brings.  We're frantically exploring whether we have enough money left to buy the time to sell our homes in a deeply depressed housing market and where we can find housing if we do…or don't. 

I do have good news though.  I recently accepted a job as senior account manager for a small firm.  It's a full time position with benefits and lots of incentives.  I'll even be managing the efforts of others.  Ten bucks an hour.

Mental Health Break

Every “Doctor Who” opening sequence ever made, starting in 1963:

For the record, I’ve probably watched more of this television show than any other (with the possible exception of the Simpsons). I love the creepy effectiveness of the very first sequence, but love the velocity of the Tennant era. As for the actors, I remain devoted to Tom Baker. But Matt Smith is really quite wonderfully dark. I remain an addict. It’s such an intelligent sci-fi show – not least because of its love of history and irony and a certain British decency which courses through the Doctor’s inhuman veins. He is the anti-Jack Bauer, in a way, proving that humaneness and humor is as effective as violence and evil, even when deployed by those who think they are doing good.