Watching the strange spectacle of a democratic political party bestow its leadership on a 19-year-old dauphin prompted a spasm of dismay this morning. Until, of course, I realized that the US is only a few notches better: we’re doing the classic South Asian thing of replacing one president with his wife and we just replaced another one with his son. Romney is the son of a presidential candidate. Who are Americans to judge the developing world any more when American politics is increasingly conducted within the family lines of a political caste?
Merry Christmas … From Bigots
A classic South Carolina tactic: this time deployed against Romney.
The Fruits Of The Washington Post
Clinton isn’t blameless either:
What’s so interesting is how easily and quickly, after just a few early news accounts, the false notion that Obama is or was ever Muslim has made it into mainstream discourse.
Channeling Orwell
There has been a definition of “torture” in place for 60 years. We’re now violating that definition. You can tart it up however you like, you can use whatever euphemism allows you to convince yourself that we’re not actually torturing people, but according to any accepted definition of torture, including the ones we wrote ourselves, that’s exactly what we’re doing. All I ask is that, if you support this type of behavior, at least be intellectually honest enough with yourself to call it torture and stop bullshitting yourself with “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
The View From Your Window
Shaftsbury, Vermont, 11 am.
A President Above The Law
Glenn Greenwald states the obvious:
And thus we have a perfect oligarchical system in which, literally, our most powerful and well-connected elite are free to break the law with impunity, exempt from any consequences. While exempting themselves, these same figures impose increasingly Draconian "law and order" solutions on the masses to ensure that even small infractions of the law prompt vigorous prosecution and inflexible, lengthy prison terms.
Hey, it’s worked so far.
Suspended Between Hope And Fear
The first test of the 2008 election cycle is imminent. Here’s my Sunday Times column on what it all means.
Obama’s Jakarta Friends
A little antidote to the toxins of Daniel Pipes.
Anecdotage
Ambers on the race:
The biggest sign that something is happening in New Hampshire: John McCain is starting to have to pool his events …
The biggest sign that something is happening in Iowa: Hillary Clinton’s starting to draw standing ovations in her speeches …
The Final Iowa Pile-Up
At this point, the polls are close enough and their reliability suspect enough to believe that anyone can win Iowa for the Democrats. Nonetheless, Clinton seems to have recovered from a tailspin, and Edwards seems to be enjoying a late surge. Did Obama peak too soon? He’s been dropping ever-so-slightly in the very latest polls and his rivals have been ticking up. In the end, the organization will probably make all the difference.
But at the same time, if it really is a three-way tie with only 1,000 votes or so between them all, how will anyone claim a clear victory? I used to think that if Clinton won Iowa, it would be over. But if she wins by a sliver, the race continues into New Hampshire and beyond. If she wins convincingly, it’s another story. If Obama wins, given last minute expectations, he could get a real boost. If Edwards wins, all hell breaks out. It’s enough to make anyone, er, excitable.
