Improving the debates

Matt says,

Last Thursday's Presidential debate was widely panned for its ridiculous format. Seriously? Two-minute responses and one-minute followups? And this is supposed to transcend talking points?

The Lehrer debate felt much meatier to me. It clearly showcased two men who had very different (but both quite substantial) views on foreign policy, and allowed them to contrast those views at length. Still, any amount of time spent paying attention to the moderator in a Presidential debate is wasted time, and Lehrer had to do a fair amount of refereeing to keep the candidates in line.

CJR's got some excellent ideas for shaking up the debate format. I've got one more:

What if we allotted to each of the candidates a block of time — say 40 minutes — and allow them to apportion it however they'd like? Engage a moderator merely to pause the debate and send the candidates in another direction if they get stuck on a particular topic, but mostly allow them to steer the debate where they'd like. Each candidate could be wired with a mic that detects when he's speaking and winds down the clock, and both the candidates and the viewers can see how much time each one has left.

You could even take this a little further by employing a team of fact-checkers who work furiously during the debate to spot misstatements of fact. If a candidate is discovered to have fudged the truth, the misstatement is revealed during the course of the debate and the candidate is docked a minute. (This would be difficult to enforce and cause a lot of partisan sniping, so the plan might be better without, but I offer it as a possibility.)

What say you, Snarkmind?

Conflict in the Middle East

Matt says,

Infosthetics points to this well-done short about the standoff in the Middle East. Being five minutes long, of course it dispenses with a lot of the actual geopolitics of the matter (leaving the prophetic religious elements of the conflict entirely unmentioned, even), but it's pretty.

Political Landscapes

Matt says,

Cf. my post on "America in speeches": BLDGBLOG has a thoughtful essay on the geography of political rhetoric. (Via CJR.)

Hard-Hitting RNC Commentary

Matt says,

Random Twitterer is right, yo. Sarah Palin's suit is the surprise hit of the night. I'm the guy that has long hated coverage of female candidates that insisted on mentioning their clothing choices, but seriously, I want that suit. Even my potential appearance in Steve Schmidt's talking points about male blogger misogyny cannot prevent me from complimenting that fierce piece of gun-metal grey hottness.

Matt Bai Talks Up The Argument

Matt says,

The Believer interviews Matt Bai. (Oh, and speaking of the NYT Magazine, I highly recommend David Leonhardt's cover story on Obamanomics if you haven't read it.)

The Gentleman from Twitter

Robin says,

Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) is twittering. Like, really twittering:

He's the best thing since the Mars Phoenix!

My Excuse

Matt says,

I've been in St. Louis. So I pass you off to Mr. Carmody for canny political commentary.

Four Days in Denver

Matt says,

Delightful. Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr., a West Wing writer, serves up a little speculative fiction on a brokered Democratic convention.

Hillary’s car is pulling away from the hotel. She spots Oregon senator Ron Wyden getting into his car. She has her car chase Wyden’s car. At a traffic light, she jumps out with a gang of Secret Service agents and they surround Wyden’s car. She climbs into Wyden’s car and rides with him, working on him to vote for her. When Wyden finally says he thinks only Obama can beat McCain, Hillary is ready for that. She tells Wyden that McCain’s winning the White House is the best thing that can happen for Wyden’s reelection in 2010, because the president’s party always loses seats in midterm elections. A Democratic president is going to make Wyden’s reelection that much tougher.

Samantha Power's Resignation

Matt says,

Such a bummer. I cringed when I read the remark last night. Now one of my favorite figures in any candidate's campaign is out. I don't know how these things work at all, but I really hope she'll still be his unofficial foreign policy adviser.

Also: Why is it I love Samantha Power so much? First, there was her book, an exhaustive and exhausting account of the unchanging pattern of genocide, and why, despite our ability to recognize that pattern, we never stop it before it's too late. Then, there was hearing her speak about the book at the Nieman Narrative conference a few years back. Although she was young (34?) and vibrant, she had this weariness about her. Maybe she was just exhausted for reasons completely unrelated to the subject matter, but you couldn't help thinking, "God, the things this poor woman is cursed with knowing." To speak at length for years with the survivors of genocides all over the world, to see it happening again and be utterly powerless to stop it -- how do you have that kind of experience and not despair?

I was as excited as Robin about the prospect of Power in a major foreign policy position (which I really hope might still come to pass). When secretaries of state commonly can't bring themselves to utter the word "genocide," how amazing would it be to have a cabinet-level official with not only the experience to recognize the pattern of genocide, but also the moral will to call it by its name?

Of course, all these pretty things I'm saying about her shouldn't erase the fact that calling Hillary Clinton a monster was not only boneheaded, but really lowers the threshold given some of the actual, human-slaughtering monsters Power has known. But it really sucks when a mistake redounds to such an ill and public effect.

Update: Marc Ambinder cites anonymous sources from the Obama campaign who say Power was not asked to leave, in case you were wondering.

Politics, Emotion, and YouTube

Robin says,

Henry Jenkins and Stephen Duncombe talk Obama, YouTube, and emotional politics. (Second video down.)

Duncombe on the will.i.am Obama video: "It uses a language of emotions which one couldn't articulate in a logical sentence." He continues with an extended analysis of the "rhetoric that's embedded in the video" that is quite smart and revelatory.

Heard a new term from Jenkins in this exchange, too: "collective intelligence culture." I like it.

The Morning After

Matt says,

It’s the morning after the election. The President-elect calls you up and says, “You know, after this grueling, absurd campaign, I now see that the state of our democracy is something we have to grapple with right away. What should I do?”

Ethikai Aretai

Robin says,

I'm a sucker for Aristotelian lingo, and a sucker for Zephyr Teachout, so that makes me doubly susceptible to her endorsement of Obama's "ethikai aretai."

Into the Fold

Robin says,

Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson on Obama and Iowa:

Obama's been drawing record crowds from San Francisco to Des Moines -- but there was always the question of whether he could produce a similar effect among real live voters.

He did so in a way that no one predicted. 57 percent of the caucus goers tonight had never caucused before. Most impressive: As many people under thirty showed up as senior citizens.

That's fucking nuts is what that is. That's the Rock the Vote political wet dream that never ever comes true... actually coming true.

What this portends for Obama as a national candidate is something truly special. He's not only proven that he can draw the support of independents and open-minded Republicans. He's the one guy who can make the Democratic pie higher, bringing new, unlikely voters into the fold. If he could replicate this kind of support among young people in a general election, it's game over.

Super awesome.

China's New Markets

Robin says,

Interesting notes over at Tim Johnson's McClatchy blog on why China is just going to keep growing and growing and growing. He quotes a former Morgan Stanley economist:

Everybody in the world has too much money except the United States. Think about it. Even Russia has a $500 billion in foreign reserves. Even India has over, like, $200 billion in foreign reserves. India never had that kind of money before. This has very important implications for what happens next year. Emerging economies do not need to cut back. They can expand. [...]

Even Africa has a lot of money. So emerging market trade in China is already half of China's trade growth. As American consumers need to rest, need to pass, suddenly emerging market trade is happening. And emerging market trade is right up China's alley because emerging markets export commodities, exactly what China needs -- oil, copper, iron ore -- exactly what China needs. And China exports cheaper consumer products and on top of that cheap capital goods, like pumps, like trucks...

This is truly the dawn of emerging market trade development.

Hmm.

No Democracy for You

Robin says,

Hey, speaking of revolutions, democracy, etc.: Read this harrowing NYRB piece on the triumph of Putinism in Russia. It's all terrible, but this part seems particularly bad:

Putin's team quickly accomplished their most important task -- the capture of television -- and once it had been completed, the country was subjected to pervasive, incessant propaganda that was far more skillful, effective, and all-encompassing than anything the Soviets ever conceived. The mass media have relentlessly hammered home images of Putin as a charismatic ruler leading a national renaissance, while portraying Putinism as the guarantor of stability and order. [...] In short, they have transformed all the diverse hypotheses about Putin's popularity from partial explanations into a single, dominant, and overwhelming reality.

"The capture of television." Wow. Worth remembering (for us internet nerds especially) that TV is still the medium that basically defines reality anywhere on earth that has, like, electricity and is not San Francisco or Tokyo.

P.S. "... more skillful, effective, and all-encompassing than anything the Soviets ever conceived" -- jeez!

A Good Hour

Robin says,

So I've mentioned Larry Lessig's new ten-year project on corruption before. Now I just finished watching his inaugural "alpha" lecture on the topic and it was terrific. An hour long, but well worth it, both for a glimpse of Lessig's cool, patchwork presentation style -- I'd heard it was great but never actually seen Lessig-slides in action -- and also for the framework he provides. He is an A+ presenter and an A++ thinker, and this is an A+++ subject.

Madness

Robin says,

Fareed Zakaria on Iran:

We're on a path to irreversible confrontation with a country we know almost nothing about. The United States government has had no diplomats in Iran for almost 30 years. American officials have barely met with any senior Iranian politicians or officials. We have no contact with the country's vibrant civil society. Iran is a black hole to us -- just as Iraq had become in 2003.

Gahhh! How is it that such walls can endure?

We Can Imagine a Better Democracy

Robin says,

Sure, they're just words, but even so: Nice words. From UK prime minister Gordon Brown, via the civic-minded Peter Levine:

At this point, Brown begins to outline practical ideas for increasing citizen voice in policy. "We have already taken the step of publishing the legislative programme in draft, inviting comments and views, and for the last six months I have been discussing and working through how to do in a more consultative way that involves people in debating the issues that matter -- drugs, crime, antisocial behaviour, housing development or even foreign policy issues like Iraq where there are public discussions."

The first step will be to "hold Citizens Juries round the country. The members of these juries will be chosen independently. Participants will be given facts and figures that are independently verified, they can look at real issues and solutions, just as a jury examines a case. And where these citizens juries are held the intention is to bring people together to explore where common ground exists."

Brown explains that "Citizens Juries are not a substitute for representative democracy, they are an enrichment of it. The challenge of reviving local democracy can only be met if we build new forms of citizen involvement to encourage them in our local services and in new ways of holding people who run our services to account. So we will expand opportunities for deliberation, we will extend democratic participation in our local communities."

The Citizen Juries sound similar to deliberative polling, an idea I've always liked. Honestly though, we don't even need anything as formal and involved as all that to get better at democracy. A little more openness would go a long way, along with a corps of legislators more interested in communicating than... whatever it is they're interested in now.

It's totally possible, especially if the internet keeps sort of reformatting social assumptions at the same rate it has been, but it is a project on the scale of a generation. Things won't magically get better in 2008. (Well: No, actually they will. But that's only because things are so bad right now. There will still be lots of work to do. Insert analogy about a house with leaky plumbing and bad insulation, but also, the roof's on fire, etc.)

The Sheltered Star

Robin says,

Historian Daniel Aaron on America:

To a nation hitherto self-contained and confident, the new responsibilities do not come easily. We have never bothered to understand alien ideas ('isms' were something to fear or deride), and 'selling America' had simply meant dispensing American largesse. We now see the extent of our involvement and the vulnerability of our talismans: natural resources and 'know-how.' We see that world problems are not merely American problems writ large, that it will take more than a little common sense and a few 'man to man' talks with the Russians to solve them. Finally, we can appreciate the degree to which our strengths and weaknesses as a people have been conditioned by the American past, how we have been blessed and victimized by our history. Because of our wealth and isolation and our vast inland empire, because of the advantages we have enjoyed as a result of European rivalries, we did not develop some of the qualities and abilities we now so desperately need.

Written in 1952.

It's just one salient bit from the latest edition of David Warsh's Economic Principals -- definitely worth a read. The last two grafs in particular are pretty tremendous.

Meta-Politics

Robin says,

Still undecided on my 2008 pick, as it is still 2007 and there's, er, no rush -- but I have to admit, Barack Obama's willingness to go meta and discuss the very framework of politics in the U.S. is pretty awesome.

Pragmatism, Politics, and God

Matt says,

Stop reading this post right now and go read Mark Lilla's stunning NYT Mag article adapted from his forthcoming book. The past year has seen a horde of devout atheists -- Dennett, Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris -- gathering arms against religion and its place in the civic sphere. But no matter how they title their books, Harris et al aren't speaking to a Christian nation, but to a small subset of fellow thinkers. Lilla's scholarship as summarized in this article feels like the scaffold for a bridge between the staunch secularists and the political theologists. Put him in a room with Reza Aslan, and you have the makings of a serious conversation, one that might begin to answer the question, "How do we live together?" Much better than this beautiful-but-doomed dialogue, at least.

Are you really still reading my rambling? GO READ LILLA. Then read No god but God. (Then read Rousseau's "Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar," which I'd never heard of until reading Lilla's piece. It's fantastic.) Then get into a conversation with an open-minded person on the opposite side of the secularist/theologist divide.

The Challenge of Authoritarian Capitalism

Robin says,

Argh! Must read this Foreign Affairs article! But it is available only to paying subscribers! Oh well -- the blockquote's pretty good on its own:

Today's global liberal democratic order faces two challenges. The first is radical Islam -- and it is the lesser of the two challenges. Although the proponents of radical Islam find liberal democracy repugnant, and the movement is often described as the new fascist threat, the societies from which it arises are generally poor and stagnant. They represent no viable alternative to modernity and pose no significant military threat to the developed world. It is mainly the potential use of weapons of mass destruction -- particularly by nonstate actors -- that makes militant Islam a menace.

The second, and more significant, challenge emanates from the rise of nondemocratic great powers: the West's old Cold War rivals China and Russia, now operating under authoritarian capitalist, rather than communist, regimes. Authoritarian capitalist great powers played a leading role in the international system up until 1945. They have been absent since then. But today, they seem poised for a comeback.

Authoritarian capitalist states, today exemplified by China and Russia, may represent a viable alternative path to modernity, which in turn suggests that there is nothing inevitable about liberal democracy's ultimate victory -- or future dominance.

The EU is also a noteworthy model. It's of course not authoritarian by any stretch, but it's not exactly democratic, either.

The question will soon be posed: Do we favor democracy simply because it is effective? Or do we favor it because it is, in some deeper sense, right? And are we willing to defend the latter proposition even if the first is subverted -- that is, even if nondemocratic systems demonstrate equal or greater effectiveness?

Not well-worded, but perhaps you get the idea.

My answer to the latter question, for the record, is yes. And you?

The World Heavyweight Champion... of Politics

Robin says,

I like the analogy of politicians as prizefighters near the end of the post. Well, actually: I don't like it... but I suspect it might possess some truth.

Liberals, Progressives, and the Future

Robin says,

Noah Millman on the temperamental difference between liberals and progressives over at the new American Scene. I interpret it thusly: Liberals like poetry; progressives like science fiction.

Skyboxification

Robin says,

Pardon the byzantine link, but if you click here, choose "Launch Fora Player," then click on section four, "Philosophical Perspective of Democracy in the U.S.," (whew) you'll get a neat run-down of the "skyboxification" of American life from Michael Sandel, whose book Democracy's Discontent was and still is a big deal to me. I'd never heard him talk before and it's pretty fantastic.

The Lamest Duck

Robin says,

Another TIME.com slideshow: This time it's President Bush's recent trip to Europe. Most of the images aren't of Bush at all, though; they're of the weird moments and empty spaces that surround any State Visit.

No idea if this is intended, but it feels a lot like a photo op-ed. The pictures definitely seem to make an argument: about the hollowness of pomp, about the scene behind the TV cameras, about being alone in the world.

This Will Be Hilarious for 18 More Months

Robin says,

The SuperNews soundboard. Awesome.

Cut the Flow of the Cola

Robin says,

The Apologist commented on my pizza concession, which reminded me that I wanted to give a shout out to his post on cola diplomacy. Who knew Sudan could lay claim to such a strategic resource?

"I want you to know that the gum arabic which runs all the soft drinks all over the world, including the United States, mainly 80 percent is imported from my country," the ambassador said after raising a bottle of Coca-Cola.

I love the world.

Database Democracy

Robin says,

This sort of statement --

"You look at the people you have to motivate, and what motivates them, and sometimes it's a negative message," said Blaise Hazelwood, another veteran of the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign who served as political director for the Republican National Committee. She set up her business, Grassroots Targeting, in 2005, offering research to campaigns. She has begun branching out to corporate clients, including a major airline.

-- sums up more and more of our political process, especially on the (unsexy but crucial) state level. Campaigns are just database queries now.

I know, I know, it's just advertising -- smart, sophisticated, data-driven advertising -- but there's something so mechanistic about it. I think I prefer heavy-handed TV ads to this kind of stuff.

Complicated Characters

Robin says,

I totally agree with Ross Douthat that this:

... the cast of characters in what is arguably the worst administration since Nixon's strikes me as devoid of literary interest.

...is totally wrong. This cast of characters -- Cheney, Rumsfeld, the Bushes -- is full of literary interest! Reading Barry Werth's 31 Days, it struck me how long and strange their story has been. And the cauldron of spite, idealism, conniving, and hubris that is Iraq: It's tragedy in the deepest sense.

But this is not a confessional crowd, and that's unlikely to change even after they're out of office, so it is precisely the job of the modern novelist (as opposed to the journalist, or even the historian) to give us some insight into their psyches.

A good, honest, complicated psychological novel about George W. Bush? I would read that in a second.

Democracy Deferred

Robin says,

Yeah yeah, I know nobody's interested in Bangladesh, but that's why I keep posting these links -- it's the seventh most populous country in the world! And it's a moderate Muslim state! Come on people!

In Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina is one of two women locked in a bitter, corrupt struggle for power that has spanned decades. Now she and other members of her party, the Awami League, stand accused of murder. Somehow I gotta believe the reaction in Bangladesh is something like: "Yeah... no kidding!"

There is actually no elected (or even quasi-elected) government at all in Bangladesh right now; since early this year it's been under the rule of an interim military government. They're the ones making the accusation, and cleaning house in general. Details from Foreign Policy.

Back in 2001, I remember hearing many, many Bangladeshis say all they really wanted was a Musharraf-style military dictator: a strong authoritarian who could ensure stability. Looks like they might just get it.

(Murder link via Activate, which is consistently sharp and surprising.)

Epistolary Espionage

Matt says,

The National Security Letter has always been a laughably frightening proposition, even for us post-privacy types. This is the one that FBI officials could issue legally requiring any organization to secretly hand over records on individuals. There may be an FBI file containing your work e-mails, bank records, and telephone contacts, and you will never know. Very Lives of Others.

Of course it would be revealed that the FBI's insidious use of the NSL has gone far beyond the boundaries permitted even by the licentious Patriot Act. To hear it described in the news reports, FBI agents are using NSLs like we use Google. One imagines a New Yorker cartoon depicting two agents chatting over coffee: "This guy asked me out on Yahoo. I NSL-ed him, he seems clean."

The WaPo's story has a chatty, charming tone to it: "The FBI collected intimate information about the lives of a population roughly the size of Bethesda's." "A report released yesterday by the department's Office of the Inspector General offers the first official glimpse into the use of that impressive tool, and the results, according to the report, are not pretty." It's maybe a Reagan-era East Berlin cocktail party vibe. Check it out.

OpenCongress

Robin says,

Super awesome new site from the makers of the Democracy Player. What's interesting is that all of this information was already available online -- it was just obfuscated. Eet eez ze power of design...

Hawks on the Brain

Robin says,

Are policymakers predisposed to believe their hawkish advisors more than the doves? Maybe -- and some pretty basic natural biases built in to our brains might help explain it. Foreign Policy mag, back with a vengeance.

Techno-Triumphalist Takedown

Robin says,

Ezra Klein offers a good reminder: The internet only goes so far. The source post he links to is pretty sharp, too.

The Wit and Wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld

Robin says,

This is a pretty snarky photo essay for TIME! Familiar with the meme, of course, but have never seen it so well-executed.

Slide four sorta sums it all up, doesn't it?

Also: a somewhat less-snarky photo essay on China. You can get 'em in a feed, you know!

Freedom

Robin says,

This video is a pretty blunt instrument, but even so, it's the coolest thing I've seen so far this Election Day. Of course, the George Michael song is key.

And, importantly, the link was emailed to me by a random friend. In fact, I've gotten more election-related emails this time around than in any previous year. It almost feels like there might be some sort of public deliberation occurring...

This democracy thing, it just might work out.

Daily Show vs. Broadcast News?

Matt says,

Which has more substantive political coverage?

Would you believe neither? That's what a telecommunications professor at Indiana U. found when she analyzed the content of The Daily Show and put it up next to a network newscast. (Card-ial.)

You've Got to Read It With a British Accent

Robin says,

Tony Blair's recent speech to New Labour, besides carrying a rather appealing message, is an exemplar of brisk British rhetoric: lots of parataxis, one-word phrases, fragments. Charming.

Boring Revolutions Are the Best Kind

Robin says,

Romania and Bulgaria are in the EU now, by the way. I still think the slow, unsexy growth of the EU might be the sleeper story of our age.

Previously: Europe's culture and creativity.

Unresolved Nation of Consequence

Robin says,

Well-established China fascination here on Snarkmarket. I went to Orville Schell's Long Now talk on China last Friday (proof) and it was great. Even better, though, was Stewart Brand's email summary of the talk -- it amounts to a killer executive brief on China today. Encyclopedic but short.

Take a read for yourself.

Oh, and in the Q&A session, Schell confirmed: China's leaders really are all technocrats, and will continue to be for some time. In fact, getting involved in politics in China is a horrible career move if you ultimately aspire to, um, be involved in politics in China: It's too easy to make a misstep and remove yourself from the running completely. The whole political environment there is like a minefield, so fortune favors the slow.

Also: Pictures of Shanghai twenty years ago! (From which the image above is taken.)

Suspended Citizenship

Robin says,

Good post from Saheli on this situation:

[T]he United States has denied re- entry to two American citizens--one naturalized and one-native born--unless they first agree to be interrogated by the FBI abroad without a lawyer and take a polygraph test. They have not been charged with any crime.

As always with S.S.R. Datta, the analysis is nuanced and, it seems to me, correct.

Meet the Panopticon, Age 21

Robin says,

Bob Kerrey gets interviewed in Foreign Policy. Here's an interesting prediction:

FP: How will college students affect November's election and the U.S. presidential race two years from now?

BK: They're likely to have a very large impact as a result of this 'macaca' type of an event [involving Sen. George Allen]. They're going to be out with cameras and tape recorders and blogs, and they'll be carrying a larger part of the debate itself. I think it will likely be a relatively small fraction of young people who turn out and vote. [But] in the blogosphere and beyond, there will be something that will be comparable to this remarkable story of George Allen -- it was, I think, a 20-year-old who [broke that story]. I think you'll see a lot more of that.

Worth reading.

It's Inevitable

Robin says,

I was just checking out Google Video's new ad system and happened to click on this video, a Charlie Rose episode featuring Thomas Friedman.

And it struck me: This man is going to run for political office.

Maybe not soon, but some day. Just listen to the way he talks! And come on, he's rich!

When it happens, just remember: Snarkmarket called it.

Justice and Statehood

Robin says,

Peter Levine, whose blog is one of my very favorites these days, has a smart and well-wrought post on Israel and the burdens of being a democracy.

P.S. Look out, the next Snarkmarket post is about reality-show superheroes! It might make your head explode if you read it too soon after this one...

Bill Gates... for President?

Robin says,

James Fallows (one of my all-time favorites) is part of The Atlantic's crew liveblogging the Aspen Ideas Festival. Here's an interesting note on the prospects for an independent presidential candidate sometime soon. (For the record I think Bill Gates as candidate is a horrible idea. But it makes a good headline!)

The Reality-Based Conservative, Part II

Matt says,

Sad that Peter Viereck died. Good that The New Yorker put the awesome article about him online. (See also.)

Politicizing a Funeral

Matt says,

And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician [Audience:] (Yeah) who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats (Yeah) and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. (Speak) They have something to say to every Negro (Yeah) who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.

Retail Politics

Matt says,

Jay Bookman tells it like it is:

Think back a little more than a year ago, to the political campaigns of 2004. One of the hottest issues in presidential debates and congressional campaigns was the threat to traditional marriage posed by gay people seeking the right to wed. ...

But a year later, it seems pertinent to ask: Have you heard or read a single word about a federal gay-marriage amendment since the election?

Scott McClellan, You Paying Attention?

Matt says,

I was very impressed by how lucid and straightforward Patrick Fitzgerald's press conference was today. My eyes have insta-glazed for two years now whenever I've encountered the words "Valerie Plame." He managed to lay it all out in a way that makes me feel I actually understand what just happened. Of course, he can probably do that better than anyone since he's apparently the only person in the world who actually knows what happened, but still. Good show.

The Same Thing He Does Every Night, Pinky

Matt says,

Today's read of the day is this New York Magazine profile of Bill Clinton. This man has got to be the best real-life tragic hero of the last three decades:

I ask Clinton why the Bush administration has gotten much softer press coverage than he did. He gives a variety of explanations, including September 11 and the rightward drift of the media. Then he gives an explanation that’s surprisingly tart: “The Bush people didn’t have anybody working for the White House who, as far as I could tell, had an inexplicable, craving need that a lot of the young people did who worked for me in that first year to talk to the press—even when they didn’t know what they were talking about.”

Wow. Kids, you know who you are.

Political Videos

Matt says,

From Robin's alma mater comes this excellent Flash repository of footage related to political events. Try looking at political ads with the theme of flip-flopping and viewing Hubert Humphrey's "Wind" ad attacking Nixon next to G.W. Bush's "Blowing" ad attacking Kerry. (Via David Weinberger.)

Noooooooo---

Matt says,

---ooooooooooooo...

The Real United Nations

Robin says,

Try this on for size: The U.N. as robust war-fighting alliance. According to Dan Plesch, that's how it really began:

The "United Nations" had been the official name for the coalition fighting the axis powers since January 1942, when Roosevelt and Churchill had led twenty-six nations, including the Soviet Union and China, in a "Declaration by United Nations".

Lots of cool images. Link via MeFi.

Bush ♥ Clinton

Matt says,

Is The New York Times celebrating the Presidents Day weekend with touchy-feely stories about Presidents and their buddies?

Governing Without Google

Robin says,

Here's a fun anecdote and sharp observation from Neil McIntosh of The Guardian. Go read it, it's short and worth the click.

Let There Be Light

Robin says,

Well, I think this page basically shows that everyone with electricity voted for Kerry.

Ooh, so maybe that's why the Democratic candidates are always pushing for alternative energy? More porch-lights = more progressives!

Okay, this probably didn't deserve to be an entire post.

Rumsfeld vs. Blanka

Matt says,

Go! (Via MetaFilter.)

Point Counterpoint Counterpoint

Matt says,

Am I the only one who's never seen WatchBlog? It's three political blogs side by side, one blog edited by a Democrat, one by a Republican, and one by an Independent. Who knows, maybe I haven't heard about it because it isn't any good, but it's an intriguing idea. Unfortunately, the giant three-column wall of text is pretty unreadable to me.