No Left Turns

These Are The Golden Days for Clintonphobics

William Voegeli — Fri, 9 May 2008 14:49:13 GMT

I'm glad it ended this way. It could have ended differently. Hillary could have lost the New Hampshire primary five days after finishing third in the Iowa caucuses. Within one week of actual voters getting their say, her candidacy would have gone from inevitable to untenable.

Instead, she pulled off a surprise victory and lived to fight the next battle. She went on to interrupt her downward trajectory with other victories -- Super Tuesday, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. After each one I despaired. Perhaps there really was no escape from a second Clinton presidency.

Now that I can exhale, I'm happy her repudiation was protracted rather than swift. Think of everything we would have missed if Hillary's campaign had ended in January. We couldn't have watched her go from being entitled to embattled to embittered to unhinged. We never would have learned the breathless details of the daring commando raid carried out by the Lioness of Tuzla. We would have been deprived of the spectacle of this graduate of Wellesley and Yale, whose family raked in $100 million over the past seven years, channeling George Wallace. Nor would we have seen the woman praised by her husband for having a "responsibility gene" boast that not a single economist endorsed her gas tax holiday, or claim that she had a plan to litigate OPEC out of existence.

Her defeat, of course, is their defeat. Finally, conservatives get two for the price of one. We've watched the trickle of liberal commentators who sign off on every mean and derogatory thing conservatives said about Bill and Hillary in the 1990s become an avalanche. His reputation is permanently, thoroughly diminished among the academics and journalists who will determine his legacy. And he did it for nothing. She lost.

Now that the Clintonian epoch is behind us, we need no longer be forced to ponder their grotesque and incomprehensible marriage. Emily Yoffe of Slate watched Bill as he stood behind Hillary in Indiana after Tuesday's debacle, and imagined him thinking, "Hill, you haven't got it. I've got it, and you haven't, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Hill, guess what, all those years you sacrificed for my career -- well, it turns out I wasn't holding you back. You're only on this stage because of me, and even so, now that it's your turn and you had everything in your favor -- Hill, you just haven't got it. And let's face it, Obama, he's got it."

Better still, the Clinton tenacity is a gift that keeps on giving. We're now in the Wylie Coyote phase of the campaign, where she insists that if she keeps pumping her legs and doesn't look down, she can run past the edge of the cliff as far as she likes. Coming soon to YouTube, Hillary's press conference outside Obama's inaugural ball, demanding to know why he can't close the deal. It's an amazing journey -- from Eleanor Roosevelt to Harold Stassen in five excruciating, wonderful months. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Bunker Hillary

Richard Adams — Fri, 9 May 2008 10:32:47 GMT

Mrs. Clinton's latest comments, suggesting that Mr. Obama is the candidate of blacks, not whites:

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she told USA Today in an interview published yesterday.
She referred to an Associated Press story on Indiana and North Carolina exit polls "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

Have angered and upset many. To me they suggest that Mrs. Clinton is battening down to be in for the long haul. On the other hand, her desperation might be the very thing that leads her to go too far, and forces her from the race. A few more such outbursts and she'll not only be out of the race, but her reputation will be in tatters as well.

Update: I suppose one could say, don't fire Mrs. Clinton until you can see the whites of her lies. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Affirmative Action Bureaucracy at Work

Richard Adams — Fri, 9 May 2008 10:25:09 GMT

Hate and intimidation seem to be tools of the trade. I fear that the story of Keith John Sampson, a student and Janitor at IUPUI, reflects an attitude that is lamentably typical:

May 9, 2008 -- IN November, I was found guilty of "racial harassment" for reading a public-li brary book on a university campus.
The book was Todd Tucker's "Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan I was reading it on break from my campus job as a janitor. The same book is in the university library.
Tucker recounts events of 1924, when the loathsome Klan was a dominant force in Indiana - until it went to South Bend to taunt the Irish Catholic students at the University of Notre Dame. . . .
But that didn't stop the Affirmative Action Office of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis from branding me as a detestable Klansman.
They didn't want to hear the truth. The office ruled that my "repeatedly reading the book . . . constitutes racial harassment in that you demonstrated disdain and insensitivity to your co-workers." . . .
the $106,000-a-year affirmative-action officer who declared me guilty of "racial harassment" never spoke to me or examined the book. My own union - the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees - sent an obtuse shop steward to stifle my freedom to read. He told me, "You could be fired," that reading the book was "like bringing pornography to work."

Ultimately, after being pressured by the ACLU and FIRE, the school backed down.

Combine the self-righteousness of the racial grievance lobby with the cluelessness of a bureaucrat at work, and you have a nasty mix. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Some More Ideas

Peter Lawler — Thu, 8 May 2008 11:12:30 GMT

Larry Sabato, in a shameless attempt to boost his ratings, has hired a couple of distinguished guest columnists to plug VP possibilities for each party. Our friend Kathryn Lopez talks up Romney for McCain. Advantages, in my view: Romney brings class, executive competence, and needed policy wonkiness to the ticket. Disadvantage: Mac and Mitt really can't stand each other; this wouldn't be an AUTHENTIC ticket. Possible disadvantage: It would be a ticket with no Christians. This shouldn't be an issue, and I've said time and again that being a Mormon makes Mitt more trustworthy in my eyes. Still, as a social scientist I have to say that this ticket might contribute to an already significant mobilization of the base problem. The problem might even be worse than that if some evangelicals continued to suckered by Obama's pseudo-Christian preaching. I do agree with Kathryn that Mitt seems a lot more than 10 years younger than John, and I'll add that he didn't really get a fair hearing as a possible presidential nominee.

The political scientist Pomper suggests Senator Jim Webb for Obama. Advantages: The bobo Barack needs to be affirmed by a genuine warrior, and Webb might well be effectively savage in attacking the "Bush/McCain" handling of the war in Iraq. Disadvantage: Webb, to put it gently, might be thought not have the emotional stability required to be commander-in-chief. He also just got to the senate and all that. Still, interesting choice. Sam Nunn obviously would be better, though. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

McCain's judiciary revisited

Joseph Knippenberg — Thu, 8 May 2008 10:45:48 GMT

Our friend RC2 has some worthwhile second thoughts on McCain's speech. She's right that appointing good judges is only a part of the solution. McCain may or may not be aware of the other part, but I don't think he should necessarily telegraph his punch there. If he were campaigning to educate rather than to win, perhaps he should have said something, but why pick a fight before the fight can actually be consequential, when all it can do is give you bad press and hand your opponent a stick with which he'll beat you from now until November?

I'm happy in my role as private citizen to say that the Court doesn't have the final word on the constitutionality of a law, that Presidents and members of Congress are also entitled to their views about constitutionality, that a court's declaration that a law is or isn't constitutional shouldn't necessarily prevent Congress from legislating or require the President to enforce, and so on. I make such arguments in the classroom all the time. But I'd rather make them in public on behalf of a President who is rightly resisting a wrong-heaed Supreme Court decision or a Congress that's seeking to act despite a "respectable" (but not conclusive) body of opinion that the measure is, or that the Supreme Court would find that the measure is, unconstitutional.

Patience, patience. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Obama on McCain on judges

Joseph Knippenberg — Thu, 8 May 2008 10:17:10 GMT

Here's Barack Obama's response to John McCain's constitutionalism. Now, it's too much to ask a campaign war room to be thoughtful and nuanced, but notice the revealing emphases--"social and economic justice" and the role of judges to "fend for" "ordinary Americans." I don't dispute the latter, when constitutional rights are involved, but the Obama campaign--unsurprisingly, of course--is curiously indifferent to that document.

And I can't but note that the first thing mentioned is "a woman's right to choose."

MOJ's Rob Vischer offers a half-hearted defense of Obama, pointing to this account of this speech. I find his choice unfortunate, not because of the passage upon which he seizes (yes, judges are individuals, and some small percentage of cases will call for an equitable, rather than constitutional judgment), but because of these lines:

We know that five men don't know better than women and their doctors what's best for a woman's health. We know that it's about whether or not women have equal rights under the law. We know that a woman's right to make a decision about how many children she wants to have and when--without government interference--is one of the most fundamental freedoms we have in this country.

The first line alludes to the absolutism of the health exception, an exception big enough to permit any abortionist to perform any abortion he or she wants. The third line endorses abortion as a form of birth control. No wonder this speech isn't available on the campaign website; it's too revealing.

Actually I can't resist citing more chunks of this speech. Consider this one:

I put Roe at the center of my lesson plan on reproductive freedom when I taught Constitutional Law. Not simply as a case about privacy but as part of the broader struggle for women's equality. Steve and Pam will tell you that we fought together in the Illinois State Senate against restrictive choice legislation--laws just like the federal abortion laws, the federal abortion bans that are cropping up.

Obama's constitution is about maximizing freedom and equality, regardless of any qualifications or specifications its words might contain, and regardless of the responsibilities given the particular branches.

He elaborates this view here, in the passage quoted in the article on which Vischer relies:

I think the Constitution can be interpreted in so many ways. And one way is a cramped and narrow way in which the Constitution and the courts essentially become the rubber stamps of the powerful in society. And then there's another vision of the court [sic] that says that the courts are the refuge of the powerless. Because oftentimes they can lose in the democratic back and forth. They may be locked out and prevented from fully participating in the democratic process. That's one of the reasons I opposed Alito, you know, as well as Justice Roberts. When Roberts came up and everybody was saying, "You know, he's very smart and he's seems a very decent man and he loves his wife. [Laughter] You know, he's good to his dog. [laughter] He's so well qualified."
I said, well look, that's absolutely true and in most Supreme Court decis--, in the overwhelming number of Supreme Court decisions, that's enough. Good intellect, you read the statute, you look at the case law and most of the time, the law's pretty clear. Ninety-five percent of the time. Justice Ginsberg, Justice Thomas, Justice Scalia they're all gonna agree on the outcome.
But it's those five percent of the cases that really count. And in those five percent of the cases, what you've got to look at is--what is in the justice's heart. What's their broader vision of what America should be. Justice Roberts said he saw himself just as an umpire but the issues that come before the Court are not sport, they're life and death. And we need somebody who's got the heart--the empathy--to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old--and that's the criteria by which I'll be selecting my judges. Alright?

Shouldn't the "broader vision of what America should be" be argued on the campaign trail and enacted in the legislative process, rather than argued on the campaign trail and imposed by judges?

For what it's worth, Rick Garnett responds to Vischer's argument in ways similar to what I just proposed. I'd say great minds think alike, but I'd be only half right. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

The non-introspective left

Peter Schramm — Thu, 8 May 2008 09:11:21 GMT

Andy Busch explains that the Democratic nomination contest has become a "team sport" (voting blocs), hence the lack of concern about Wright and Ayers and argues that this explains a great deal about the left in America: no enemies on the left! A fine article, and I happen to agree with even the last paragraph that advises Republicans. Do read it. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Limbaugh getting in Obama's head?

Joseph Knippenberg — Thu, 8 May 2008 07:01:20 GMT

The Obama campaign is basically blaming Rush Limbaugh for their defeat in Indiana. Malicious crossover voters--a term used by former Georgia Congresswoman and light heavyweight boxing champion Cynthia McKinney to explain one of her primary defeats--handed Indiana to Clinton. Henceforth only those pure of heart may vote in Democratic primaries. There will be psychological screening at the door. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Linker on evangelical idolatry and purism

Joseph Knippenberg — Wed, 7 May 2008 23:04:11 GMT

Damon Linker indulges himself in a long book review, in which he joins the author in criticizing conservative evangelicals for their overfond embrace of George W. Bush's America but parts company with him on the apparently all-too-Augustinian (I'd almost say Hauerwasian) standpoint from which he makes the criticism. There's a certain sobriety in Linker's argument, but it's available to Augustinian evangelicals (and, I hasten to argue, Catholics) as well as to the theological liberals and secularists with whom he now keeps company. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Regulatory Bureaucracy At Work

Richard Adams — Wed, 7 May 2008 15:47:11 GMT

From yesterday's Los Angeles Times:

:
Dave Eck, a Half Moon Bay mechanic, had attracted a media spotlight with his fleet of vehicles fueled by used fryer grease from a local chowder house. So when Sacramento called, he figured officials wanted advice on promoting alternative fuels.
Not at all. The government rang to notify Eck that he was a tax cheat. He was scolded for failing to get a "diesel fuel supplier's license," reporting quarterly how many gallons of grease he burns, and paying a tax on each gallon.
All of a sudden they nailed me for a road tax," said Eck, who drives a Hummer converted to run on vegetable oil. "I said, 'Not a problem. I'll do my part. But what do I get? At least let me into the carpool lane.' "
No such luck. The state offered Eck only a potentially large fine -- and not just for failing to pay taxes. He can also get in trouble for carting kitchen grease away from eateries without a license from the state Meat and Poultry Inspection Branch.
Or for not having at least $1 million in liability insurance, in case he spills some of the stuff. Or for not getting permission from the state Air Resources Board to burn fat in the first place.
The regulations are so burdensome that even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, trying to set an example for Californians by driving a Hummer that burns cooking oil he buys at Costco, had not complied. Schwarzenegger . . . was unaware that he was required to send Sacramento an 18-cent road tax for every gallon of kitchen oil he burned, according to spokesman Aaron McLear. After The Times raised the issue, McLear said the governor would pay the taxes he owed.

(Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Liberal Education in The New Criterion

Joseph Knippenberg — Wed, 7 May 2008 12:57:32 GMT

The May issue of The New Criterion is devoted to liberal education, with articles by Roger Kimball, Victor Davis Hanson, and James Piereson, among others. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

The New Democratic Coalition

Julie Ponzi — Wed, 7 May 2008 12:16:04 GMT

According to Paul Begala it is "eggheads and African-Americans." Moreover, it is a coalition with which--he asserts--they cannot win. (H/T: Hugh Hewitt) Read the whole transcript from Begala's exchange with Donna Brazile. Geez . . . talk about bitter! (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Huffing and Puffing

Julie Ponzi — Wed, 7 May 2008 12:08:25 GMT

John Stossel deconstructs Ariana Huffington's assertion that she converted to Liberalism because after working with conservatives for so long, she was finally confronted with "the facts." The problem is that Huffington doesn't really fare so well when she's confronted with real facts. Her response to them is to confront her interlocutor (Stossel) with a pile of incoherent feelings. In the end, not even Huffington can dance around her inconsistencies, admitting,

"There is no question that the fact that I'm living in a big house, I occasionally travel on private planes -- all those things are contradictions. I'm not setting myself up as some paragon who only goes around on a bicycle."

Yet Huffington has set herself atop a burgeoning Liberal empire as Queen of The Huffington Post. As Stossel points out, in just three years the site has become one of the most discussed and viewed in Liberal circles. And we are surprised because . . .? (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

You Call it Rationalization, We call it Nature

Richard Adams — Wed, 7 May 2008 11:47:05 GMT

A friend sent me this story about why conservatives are more happy than liberals.

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.
Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found. Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.
The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."
To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance. In that way, one's social class attainment, whether upper, middle or lower, would be perceived as totally fair and justified.

A conservative perspective on this phenomenon might be that it is not healthy to hope that the world can be other than it is. The hope for change, understood as change in the strong sense--the desire to purge the world of tragedy--causes unhappiness. Oh the irony! (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Evangelical Manifesto revisited and revealed

Joseph Knippenberg — Wed, 7 May 2008 11:21:56 GMT

Here's the website. Will all heaven break loose? (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

What happened yesterday

Joseph Knippenberg — Wed, 7 May 2008 08:44:51 GMT

Jay Cost explains. I'd add that parts of northern Indiana are in the Chicago media market, which ought to have helped Obama.

Of course, the bottom line is that Clinton underperformed in the expectations game, and the bottomest line is that even an overperformance on her part probably wouldn't have made much of a difference in the final outcome. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Class warfare in the friendly skies

Joseph Knippenberg — Wed, 7 May 2008 08:18:01 GMT

Our frequent flying friend Jerry Weinberger muses about class consciousness on airplanes. He strikes me as almost a Marxist, albeit of the Groucho variety. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Walkin' from New Orleans?

Joseph Knippenberg — Tue, 6 May 2008 22:54:49 GMT

NLT readers who are members of the American Political Science Association may be aware that our professional association is entertaining a couple of proposals regarding the siting of meetings. In a nutshell, there are some--many?--in the profession who say they're worried that "states with Constitutional restrictions on rights afforded recognized same-sex unions and partnerships may create an unwelcoming environment for our members in cities where we might meet."

If you're interested in the proposals, you can go to this page, which provides a plethora of information. There's even a comment box, in which I wrote the following:

Both proposals indicate a certain level of hostility to states in which there is exclusive public support for traditional marriage. I don't think that the APSA should be in the business of taking sides in a political dispute, using its prestige and business clout to punish states and localities whose citizens don't share the views held-rather intensely-by some portion of the APSA membership. If the Association goes down this path, I can foresee other efforts to take political stands. Will we refuse to convene in states whose citizens passed referenda prohibiting affirmative action? Will there be a move to stay out of states that use lotteries to prey on the gullibility of lower income citizens? Or should the Supreme Court at some point overrule ROE, will some of my colleagues press the APSA to refuse to convene in states that choose to restrict access to abortion?
At some point we cease being a professional association that welcomes and includes the variety of points of view that members hold and become a mere interest group. Both proposals represent an ill-advised step in that direction.

I fully expect the APSA to adopt one of the two proposals, which would make it difficult (albeit perhaps not impossible) to hold a meeting in the vast majority of states. But, unlike at least some of my colleagues, I won't thereby be deterred from entering precincts that would constitute an "unwelcoming environment" for someone who holds my views.

For the moment, I'll just enjoy considering what would happen if regional and state associations followed the lead of the national association. Imagine a Southern or Georgia Political Science Association Annual Meeting held in New York or Boston! (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Yuval Likes Bobby for VP (Maybe)

Peter Lawler — Tue, 6 May 2008 10:56:50 GMT

Levin dissents from the chorus of conservatives who say Jindal isn't ready. He, Yuval observes, is "moderately experienced," and that's better than Obama. His lack of foreign policy experience is no big deal, given Mac's expertise. And his impressive HHS experience makes him strong where McCain is weak. The real argument against Bobby seems to be something like this: McCain has very little chance of winning; Jindal's great talents will be wasted in a futile campaign, and gone will the the opportunity for him to display his magnificient, incorrptible excellence by transforming LA. The Republicans have so little young talent that Bobby should be saved for a more promising appearance on the national stage later. We also can't be sure he's really ready for prime time; it's asking too much to put him on the national ticket so soon. To which somone might respond: This is a very important election! Very ideological Democrats are bound to get an iron grip on both the presidency and Congress! Even if the ticket loses, Bobby will be in a position to be the prez nominee next time. Anyway, who else we got?! Desperate or semi-desperate times require the audacity of hope! (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Fred Likes the Long Campaign

Peter Lawler — Tue, 6 May 2008 09:47:28 GMT

Barnes does well in explaining why the slow road to picking the Democratic nominee has taught us much we wouldn't know otherwise about the two candidates. It has also may have provided the party leaders with a genuine role in selecting the nominee, if they chose to exercise it. This race has similarities to the last couple under the "mixed" nominating system (some delegates selected by primaries, others selected by party leaders in the states)--the Republican contest of 1964 and the Democrat one in 1968. In both of those cases, the June California primary was crucial. CA made the Goldwater nomination inevitable and, in my opinion, would have made Robert Kennedy's nomination very likely [We'll never know, of course]. I also remember CA in those days was decisive because it was winner-take-all. Under the Democrats' current scheme of hyper-proportional representation, the close CA result in the Goldwater and Kennedy cases would have been utterly inconclusive.

2. Having said that, I really believe that the primaries/cacuses have ended up being conclusive this year for the Demos.

My bold prediction: The polls are more or less right. Clinton wins by 5 in IN and Obama by 8 in NC. Race over, for all practical purposes. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Two Cheers for McCain

Joseph Knippenberg — Tue, 6 May 2008 09:18:48 GMT

From what at first glance--but only at first glance--would seem to be an unlikely source.

Here's one of my favorite passages:

I don't doubt that Hillary and Obama are patriots. I don't even doubt that the upscale secularists who have taken over the Democratic Party are patriots; but theirs is a "soft" patriotism, a patriotism twice diluted, once with the waters of cosmopolitanism, and again with the waters of something tasting of pacifism. McCain, by contrast, is a "hard" patriot, not in the least a pacifist. But isn't there a danger that a patriot of this stripe will prove to be a warmonger? Yes, some danger. But George Washington wasn't a warmonger, and neither was Dwight Eisenhower, and neither, I think, is McCain. Retired warriors are willing to fight, but rarely do they yearn for another battle (think of Colin Powell).

Read the whole thing.

(Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

McCain's judicial philosophy

Joseph Knippenberg — Tue, 6 May 2008 08:53:46 GMT

John McCain is set to speak about his approach to the Constitution. The journalists will focus on the hot button issues that appeal to what the AP reporter is happy to call the "far right." (Is the expression "far left" in her lexicon, and does it apply to groups like the ACLU and PFAW?) McCain will surely say (more than) a few words about these subjects, but will probably give voice also to this position (with which I'm quite happy when it comes to judging):

"It's not social issues I care about. It's the Constitution of the United States I care about."

We'll see.

Update: Here's the speech, with red meat for judicial conservatives but little for those who want Sen. McCain to embrace an activist social conservatism. To be sure, there's criticism of the ethereal language of Griswold v. Connecticut and of the steel wool secularism of Michael Newdow, but amidst all the talk about upholding a limited Constitution, there's nothing about amending it. I didn't expect it and I'm not really disappointed, as I share Sen, McCain's view that most of our debates ought to be conducted in the political arena.

If there's anything "unusual" about the speech, it's that the Justice whose views are closest to the spirit of Sen. McCain's remarks is Antonin Scalia, about whom he is conspicuously silent. That's probably the price to be paid for trying to continue to appeal to "independents," not because Scalia should be persona non grata to them, but because his quite reasonable views have for too long been caricatured by those who disagree with him.

For more on the speech, read Gerard V. Bradley and this NRO editorial. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

An Evangelical Manifesto

Joseph Knippenberg — Mon, 5 May 2008 14:24:23 GMT

Word is out that ome prominent evangelicals will engage in some prophetic witness about the prophetic witness in which some of their brethren have engaged.

Among the prominent signatories are (apparently) Rick Warren, Os Guinness, and Richard Mouw. Prominent non-signatories include a number of the usual suspects, like James C. Dobson, Richard Land, and Tony Perkins.

The manifesto has been embargoed until this Wednesday. I'm sure I'll have something to say then. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

The Wisdom of Franklin

Richard Adams — Mon, 5 May 2008 12:02:44 GMT

From The Way to Wealth: "He that lives on hope will die fasting." (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Two Observations

Peter Lawler — Mon, 5 May 2008 11:06:14 GMT

1. I'm glad to see Bill Kristol and our Julie getting on board with Bobby Jindal for VP. (And for a pithy and precise summary of his virtues for the ticket, see Ivan the K's comment on Julie's post.) My only reservation: I do remember that Bill (I flatter myself without any evidence) followed my lead in talking up Huck, but that didn't work out so well. A member of my department--a moderate Democrat and no reader of NLT--came in this morning all excited about the McCain-Jindal ticket as a genuinely competent alternative to all-talk Barack. Bobby is young and, in a way, relatively inexperienced, but his young life is already full of stunning examples of his mastery of public policy and its implementation. I agree with Bill K. that choosing Bobby would quiet a variety of fears about the McCain administration. Besides (to repeat) the Republicans really have no one else--Pawlenty is solid but boring. It seems to me likely that Obama will generate some excitement and counter his obvious weaknesses by picking the ultra-competent Sam Nunn. McCain is toast if he doesn't counter with a similar (and really better) move.

2. I suspect--again with no real facts--that tomorrow might be a good day for Obama. The reason: The expectations for Hillary have become too high. I don't think she'll win double-digit in IN or that NC will be particularly close. I also agree that she can become a viable candidate again only by winning both primaries. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Some of us don't care

Joseph Knippenberg — Mon, 5 May 2008 07:49:18 GMT

Here's evidence that some faculty members don't care about their students...or is it that they care too much? (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

The Caution that is Audacity

Julie Ponzi — Mon, 5 May 2008 02:35:06 GMT

When is audacity the better part of caution? I think Bill Kristol knows. In his New York Times column today, he argues that McCain needs to demonstrate the kind of caution that requires audacity--not only in his veep choice, but also in the full on operation of his campaign. Kristol's reflection comes from his talks with McCain staffers and, if his representations are--in fact--representative, it sounds like they know what they're about. It's well and good to watch your opponent set himself afire, but you'd better not assume he's an ordinary bird when he might be a phoenix. The Arizonan McCain, who somewhat miraculously pulled his own feathers out of the fire, must know this. But it's not just the general rule of thumb that one should never underestimate one's opponent that should drive McCain's campaign. As Kristol argues, at at time when there's a 30% approval rating for a GOP President and when 80% of the voters think the country's on the wrong track, overconfidence is not going to serve McCain well. And yet, perhaps the only thing more deadly in this situation is excessive caution. So what to do?

VP choices, in and of themselves, rarely mean anything substantive or representative for a campaign. That is unless, of course, it is a bad choice and it causes voters to question the judgment of the man at the top of the ticket. (As we've seen in the last few weeks; one has to be careful about the people with whom one associates in politics!) But even putting the Reverand Wright aside, this has been a campaign season in which almost every rule of thumb has been tossed out the window.

Kristol's article has me thinking that in this year and for this election, perhaps especially in the case of McCain, it's going to be very important to see who he selects to be his VP running mate. There are a whole host of reasons for this that are obvious: his age, his need to shore up the conservative base, his need to appeal to Reagan Dems, his need to bring energy to the campaign, etc. But more than all of this, it is going to be McCain's next (and, if it's not done well, maybe last) really big opportunity to set the tone for his campaign and define himself to voters. He will have a chance to make a case to voters about what kind of a Republican he is and what kind of energy he will bring to the campaign. Is he a clone of Bush, representing ties to an unpopular and troubled administration? Is he an establishment Republican, with an assortment of old stalwarts (or their clones) in his entourage? Is he an associate of overly zealous religious conservatives who (fairly or not) will invariably invite comparisons suggesting equivalence between themselves and Wright . . . or is there really something to his "maverick" reputation?

What does it mean for McCain to be a "maverick," anyway? Are his conservative critics right that he's only a maverick when he's going up against conservatives--or could they be missing something? Could it be that McCain sees himself more as a patriot trying to forge new and workable directions--a guy open to new ideas and to making things work in the best sense of the American tradition? We don't have to agree with McCain's self-perception to concede that it may, in fact, be his understanding of himself. Perhaps this caused him to butt heads with conservatives in the past . . . and perhaps (dare he say it?) in some of those instances, he turned out to be wrong. But could this be a different time? Could this be a time when a maverick is exactly what we need? Could this be a time when the "maverick" in him, instead of sizing up the next conservative opponent is now drawn to a fresh, young, reforming but conservative maverick in his own right? Could the caution that is audacity move McCain to be a real maverick and choose Bobby Jindal for his running mate? Could this pre-boomer and post-boomer ticket work the generational angle in such a way as to explain away much of the poor perception of the GOP that is the immediate (though I still say, not the lasting) legacy of last 8 years? I don't know but I think . . . maybe. Anyway, it is the audacity of my hope. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Horse Race Blog

William Voegeli — Sun, 4 May 2008 11:45:13 GMT

Before the Kentucky Derby, Hillary Clinton urged supporters to "go to the derby on Saturday and place just a little money on the filly for me."

For the record, Eight Belles finished second and was then euthanized.

The winner was Big Brown. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Heightening the Contradictions

Richard Adams — Sun, 4 May 2008 10:28:42 GMT

What happens when Unions and Governments go Capitalist? We may soon find out. Today's New York Post has a story about the various Presidential candidates' plans for, on one hand, a gas tax holiday, and, on the other, a windfall profits tax on those very firms. There are, however, complications:

Democratic proposals to tax oil companies would wind up hurting the very blue-collar voters that Obama and Clinton are courting, Wall Street watchdogs say.
A new tax would drive down share prices - and take a nice chunk out of public-employee pension funds and mutual funds whose portfolios are flush with energy stocks, experts say. . . .
Obama opposes the gas-tax holiday but wants to sock oil companies with a windfall tax, to provide $1,000 tax credits for low-income families.
But those profits often keep the retirement plans of American families afloat.
About 54 percent of outstanding shares in ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company, are held by institutional investors like TIAA-CREF, which provides retirement planning for more than 3 million people.
Other big Exxon investors include pension funds for California's and New York's state employees, each of which owns more than 20 million shares, and the New York State Teachers Retirement Fund, which owns 18 million shares.
Institutional investors hold even larger portions of other oil companies, including 84 percent of Conoco Phillips, 88 percent of Hess and 89 percent of Marathon.

Personally, I have long worried that the rise of giant public pension funds would be bad for the free market. It can't be good for quasi-public entities like CALPERS to own large chunks of private corporations. In this instance, however, perhaps it might have a fringe benefit. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

From the Alpha to the Omega

Peter Schramm — Sat, 3 May 2008 19:25:51 GMT

That many of us favor a liberal arts education should be clear to any browser of these pages. It therefore should not surprise that we would favor the study of Ancient Greek, even if we got to the study of it late, in my case in graduate school. I took an intensive Greek class one summer, worked like a dog on it--between reading Churchill, Lincoln, Shakespeare, and some basketball--but managed to flunk the final exam anyway (a translation of a page from Plato's Republic....got the trees right but failed to note the forest). The point is this: I knew the study of the thing is not useful (I also studied French, German, and other modern versions of logos), but thought it a good and beautiful thing anyway. I was right.

There has, for some four years now, been a push by the students at Ashland University to get the University to offer it again (as it did until thirty years ago). Yes, I said the students. These noble fellows, through their representative institution called the Student Senate, voted unanimously for at least three years running to request the faculty to re-institute the offering of Ancient Greek (and Latin). While the noble President and the Provost have argued in favor of the thing, the Spanish Department (I must say for reasons not so noble) has urged--and so far succeeded--and argued against it. The students have even conducted a 24 hour sit-in (the first here in decades), thinking that those faculty not being open to logos might be shamed into it. So far they are losing, but the polemos has not yet ended, so some are just learning the alphabet

on their own.

I'm now thinking that a more practical argument should have been used in favor of Ancient Greek. Just fifteen minutes ago I happened to see on CBS evening news--it was an accident that I watched it, never normally do--that the father (Stanley Johnson) of the recently elected Mayor of London (Boris Johnson) said that his son's election was due entirely to his son's classical education. After all, he said, "If you can master Ancient Greek, you can master anything." Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Kalos. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Rawls vs. Nozick

Peter Lawler — Sat, 3 May 2008 16:13:03 GMT

... is the choice that many professors of philosophy would stick us with. Shallow, abstract egalitarianism vs. shallow (well not as shallow), abstract libertarianism--some choice! Here's the right choice, according to David Schaefer: Don't bother with either of them! Neither talks about "human nature," by which David means real people and real human problems. When Berry students go to graduate school, they sometimes write me complaining: "Why didn't you tell us about Rawls?" My only response: "I didn't have the heart." My only question to David: If Rawls is shallow, boring, and not a very good writer, why have you written so many pages on him? (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Intra-Democratic Partisanship and the Press

Richard Adams — Sat, 3 May 2008 12:36:40 GMT

One fringe benefit of the long, drawn-out fight for the Democratic nomination is that it is forcing the press corps to describe the connection between the Democratic party and the media establishment, as the partisans of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama each try to undermine the credibility of other's friends in the press.

Hence we have stories appearing like the one on the first page of today's New York Times about the feud between the anchors of Sunday talkshows on NBC and ABC, Tim Russert and George Stephanopolous. When was the last time that the Times reminded its readers that both men were Democratic party operatives before moving to TV?

The Russert-Stephanopoulos duel presents an intriguing rivalry, with parallel paths to the top of Sunday television. Both went from politics, where they were aides to Democratic luminaries, to the pinnacle of broadcast news, as hosts of venerated public affairs programs.
. . .There is a lot of disagreement in the land about who's been fair to whom," said Dee Dee Myers, White House press secretary early in the Clinton administration. "So you'll have Clinton people watching to see if she's being treated fairly and Obama people watching to see if he's being treated fairly. And neither side will feel like they've been treated fairly, no matter how fair those interviews turn out to be."
Ms. Myers is one of many Washington insiders who straddle the media and government worlds. She worked with Mr. Stephanopoulos at the White House and has been a regular guest of Mr. Russert on "Meet the Press."
. . .Schooled in politics by former bosses like Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, both New York Democrats, Mr. Russert took a Rose Garden approach to this article and declined to comment.

When the Liberal-Democratic press opposes Republicans and Conservatives, it is in their interest to deny the Liberalism of the press corps. But when two Liberals are fighting, each side wants to expose the other's partisans. May the chaos continue.

(Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Noonan's embrace of bitterness

Joseph Knippenberg — Sat, 3 May 2008 07:09:34 GMT

Peggy Noonan thinks that the bitterness conjured by Rev. Wright is unserious, a kind of entertainment, sort of like contemporary Irish music that rails against the British. Perhaps. But not too long ago some Irish-Americans were giving money to the IRA, which wasn't using it to start book clubs.

Of course it's true that our particular identities are bound up with our old grievances. If I have to choose between a particularity that conjures up anger based upon painful memories and a universality that takes nothing other than current enjoyment "seriously," I'll choose the former. But among the other things we shouldn't forget are the costs and consequences associated with those grievances, not to mention the reason we'd like to see accompanying them. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

New Mayor of London

Peter Schramm — Fri, 2 May 2008 23:51:47 GMT

An odd and colorful character named Boris Johnson has been elected the mayor of London, the first Conservative ever elected to the post. More: "In the local elections, Labour lost more than 300 councillors and slumped to a humiliating third place behind the Liberal Democrats in the share of the vote -- a full 20 points behind Mr Cameron's Conservatives." (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Oh Give me a Cave!

Julie Ponzi — Fri, 2 May 2008 18:51:43 GMT

Ben Boychuk is on a roll this week. Over at RedBlueAmerica he brings our attention to this "new" idea for men: man caves or "Mantuaries." Never mind that "mantuary" sounds more like mortuary than sactuary . . . Ben's laughing at the notion that people today seem to find something new in it. As he says, back in his day (Ben's under 40 btw) men used to call these rooms . . . hold on now, what was it . . . oh, yes . . . "dens" or "basements." At my house, we call it a "garage" and it's ~~possible~~ probable that I like its existence even better than my better half likes it. Of course, there's a clinical psychologist weighing in for good measure. It really is likely that, in the last generation or so, we have made ourselves so willfully stupid about the nature of the differences between men and women and the relationships between them that we actually will have to reinvent the wheel. Funny thing . . . it turns out still to be round. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Religion and homosexuality on campus

Joseph Knippenberg — Fri, 2 May 2008 11:30:52 GMT

A couple of years ago, some Georgia Tech students filed suit against the trade school--er, I mean great institution of higher learning--on North Avenue on a number of grounds. Well, a federal judge has issued what looks like his final ruling in this case. The two big findings deal with Tech's "Safe Space" program (regarding GBLT students) and its administration of its student activities fee. The manual for the former contains a number of passages that appear to criticize religious groups that regard homosexuality as a sin. Turns out that that violates the First Amendment. Good for the judge, bad for Tech.

The administration of the student activities fee poses more complicated problems, partly because whoever the legally responsible parties are, the plaintiffs didn't, in this case, sue them. The judge does give lots of free legal advice (yes, it's all dicta, but that doesn't mean he's wrong) to the folks at Tech (some of whom appear rather clueless when it comes to First Amendment speech and religion issues).

The bottom line: to the degree that this particular skirmish in the culture war implicates religious questions, the university as a public institution can't take sides. Some people seem to think that this decision squelches debate, but there remain plenty of opportunities for GLBT students and supporters to promote their point of view. The only thing they can't do is call in Big Brother to criticize their opponents on religious grounds. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE

Peter Lawler — Fri, 2 May 2008 09:28:05 GMT

...researchers have produced an ongoing study that shows they like a lot. "White," apparently, means completely unethnic. Despite my obvious pastiness, I'm not as white as I thought. Nonetheless, I'm as white as they come when it comes to #1 (coffee) and #57 (JUNO). The deconstruction of JUNO give by the analyst has caused me to reflect more deeply on the issue of whether the filmmakers successfully pandered to my inner whiteness. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Labour loses in England and Wales

Peter Schramm — Fri, 2 May 2008 07:35:27 GMT

The Labour Party has suffered its worst losses in local elections in 40 years. PM Brown is not happy. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Edwards should have stayed in race

Peter Schramm — Fri, 2 May 2008 07:25:33 GMT

Joe Trippi, John Edwards' campaign manager, now says he regrets not telling Edwards to stay in the race:

"I didn't tell him what I should have told him: That I had this feeling that if he stayed in the race he would win 300 or so delegates by Super Tuesday and have maybe a one-in-five chance of forcing a brokered convention. That there was a path ahead that would be extremely painful, but could very well put him and his causes at the top of the Democratic agenda. And that in politics anything can happen -- even the possibility that in an open convention with multiple ballots an embattled and exhausted party would turn to him as their nominee. I should have closed my eyes to the pain I saw around me on the campaign bus, including my own. I should have told him emphatically that he should stay in. My regret that I did not do so -- that I let John Edwards down -- grows with every day that the fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continues." (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Bill Moyers, Visionary and Martyr

William Voegeli — Thu, 1 May 2008 21:57:17 GMT

Time magazine's Joe Klein doesn't devote much time to admiring conservatives, so it's especially significant when he nails someone on the Left. His latest column is ostensibly about Jeremiah Wright, but its most interesting passages fillet Bill Moyers, "who seems to be spending the rest of his life over-atoning for his service as Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam spokesman . . ."

Klein sees the Jeremiah Wright controversy as "this year's edition of a problem that has hurt the Democratic Party since the Vietnam era" -- the Left's fluency when talking about America's deficiencies combined with its aphasia about America's virtues. Moyers, for example, found Wright too complacently patriotic in their PBS interview. When the preacher noted that Americans have the freedom to make the kind of controversial political statements he favors, Moyers corrected him: "Well, you can be almost crucified for saying what you've said . . . in this country." This, Klein says, is the "sort of thinking that helped make the Republicans the dominant party of the past 40 years."

Moyers has spent four decades since leaving the Johnson administration fearlessly speaking truth to power. He single-handedly saved the nation from a junta, for example, when he warned America from the PBS studios on Election Night 2004 that "if Kerry were to win this in a -- in a tight race, I think there'd be an effort to mount a coup, quite frankly. . . . I mean that the right wing is not going to accept it."

For confronting the powerful and insidious right-wing conspiracy, Moyers has found himself all but crucified. His enemies have hounded him relentlessly, preventing him from exposing the ugly truth about their sinister plans by making him publisher of Newsday, and then a commentator on CBS and NBC television. His internal exile has also included a taxpayer supported platform on public television, and the presidency of a foundation, the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy. In the latter capacity he helped steer -- from a family fortune built on the depredations of General Motors and IBM -- nearly $11 million in 2006 to truth-telling allies. These included The American Prospect and Texas Observer magazines, and "Democracy Now," which is the radio equivalent of "Bill Moyers Journal," except that Amy Goodman doesn't have Moyers' madcap sense of humor. While he was at it, he helped steer $232,993 to himself that year to cover salary, benefits and expenses.

Perhaps one of the investigative journalists subsidized by the Schumann Center will untangle how the right-wing conspiracy can be powerful enough to stage a coup but too ineffectual to pull the plug on Moyers' pontifications. The appalling truth could turn out to be that the better-acquainted Americans become with Moyerism, the more favorably disposed they become to the conservative alternative. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

McCain and health care

Peter Schramm — Thu, 1 May 2008 16:05:38 GMT

Andy Busch writes a terrific piece both on McCain's health care proposal and how the country ought to deliberate about this subject that is so prone to mischief to our ourselves, our values, and our institutions. Please read it. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Julie Ponzi — Thu, 1 May 2008 12:52:42 GMT

Courtesy of Breitbart, an assertion from a union leader that Hillary is the gal because she's got . . . um . . . well, "testicular fortitude." But don't worry, according to this report, she's got a softer set of assets as well.

Yes, this is funny. But can our politics really get any more decrepit? Wait . . . don't answer that . . . I haven't forgotten about Bill and his boxers (much as I wish I could). (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

ore Wright nd Obm

Joseph Knippenberg — Thu, 1 May 2008 10:27:39 GMT

This NYT story surely doesn't make either man look good. Obama comes across as much too calculating in all his moves, which ends up giving some credence to Rev. Wright's claim that he's "just" a politician doing what a politician has to do.

There's also some polling evidence of a bleeding Kansan. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

McCain's Campaign

Peter Lawler — Thu, 1 May 2008 10:22:02 GMT

...is going pretty well, actually. He's getting his health care plan out there with enough effectiveness that NPR is caricaturing it. The point is being made that his reform is actually more fundamental that Obama's in a decisive respect: He wants to maximize consumer choice by detaching insurance from employment. Not only that, the honorable man is showing himself to be too classy to exploit Barack's recent troubles. Why not let the Clintons do the heavy lifting here? And there's no reason he should treat Obama as the presumptive nominee at this point. All in all, Mac's hope for victory rests on being a plausible alternative to a highly ideological and too inexperienced candidate. He's doing well in being that so far. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Nice guys don't get into Princeton?

Joseph Knippenberg — Thu, 1 May 2008 07:36:09 GMT

So argues this Princeton alumna and current Yale 1L. Is it nice to describe your classmates as not nice? (For the record, there's a nice young woman from my church who'll be entering Yale this Fall. I hope she can stay that way.)

Stated a bit more modestly, her larger point is that there's a tension between achievement (as we define it) and what Hobbes would call complaisance. Our meritocratic college admissions and career advancement processes reward the former but don't really take the latter into account. And there's apparently nothing in high-flying college life to encourage the latter.

By contrast, I've encountered lots of nice college students, some at places I've visited in recent weeks, some at places where friends teach, and some at my own institution. In some cases (I know I'm using "some" too much), these nice kids are pretty doggone smart and might even be described as high achievers. But, so far as I can tell, they're not ambitious self-promoters. Might it be because they recognize their "giftedness" as actually a gift from someone? That gives me a bit of hope for the young woman (Yale College, Class of 2012) from my church. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Peter Schramm — Thu, 1 May 2008 05:45:51 GMT

This seems important. U.S. war planes killed an Islamist rebel said to be al Qaeda's leader in

Somalia. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

or Art&pos;s ke?

Richard Adams — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:18:56 GMT

During my misspent teenage years, my parents dragged me to an exhibit of Paul Gauguin's work. Near the end of our tour of the exhibit, a friend who had joined us turned to me and said, "he liked looking at young women. I can appreciate that." (Truth be told, his language was a bit stronger, but this is a family website). The troubles Miley Cirus has had of late (which Julie mentioned a couple of days ago) reminded me of that bit of adolescent wisdom.

In the past couple of centuries, broadly speaking, art seems to have lost its way. The naked pursuit of art for arts sake has made it difficult to consider the moral implications of art (other than "consciousness raising," and other such things) or the legitimacy of moral restrictions on the artist's craft. Hence it is not entirely impossible that Miley Cirus and her father trusted Annie Liebovitz when she asked the 15 year old Miley to pose half naked for her camera. It is possible that they trusted a respected artist at work. Taking pictures of semi-nude people, however young or old, is, after all, art.

That reminds me of a comment in Leo Strauss' famous "Preface to Spinoza's Critique of Religion": "Rousseau was the first modern critic of the fundamental modern project (man's conquest of nature for the sake of the relief of man's estate) who therewith laid the foundation for the distinction, so fateful for German thought, between civilization and culture." Culture, in which we find the world of high art, is to be free to follow its own muse. A good civilization, many people nowadays seem to think, is one that lets artists be free to do so. Hence my friend was not entirely wrong about the trend that Gauguin represented with his paintings from Tahiti.

Perhaps Voltaire put it best in a letter to Rousseau: "One wants to walk on all fours after reading your book." (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Random Observations

Peter Lawler — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:04:03 GMT

1. Today is Willie Nelson's birthday. Although I'm sure he has many unsound political and pharmacological views, he's impossible not to like.

2. The most recent studies show Hillary nearing a double-digit lead in Indiana and behind only by single digits in North Carolina. But, to repeat myself, her surge has nothing to do with her renewed popularity. Nor does it increase enough to notice her very, very small chance of getting the nomination. Back in the good old real convention days, party leaders would be searching for a third candidate.

3. Rev. Wright, to state the obvious, both has caused Obama to become less popular and, through his hyper-polarizing racist demagoguery, makes it even less possible for Democrats to consider denying Barack the nomination. The most likely scenario is Obama limping to the nomination with no momentum and little enthusiasm. But he may rise from the dead at his convention. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Immigration, Old Style

Richard Adams — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:03:12 GMT

From the fine textbook, Colonial America in an Atlantic World, by T.H. Breen and Timothy Hall. In the 18th Century:

arrival in an American port brought relief to passengers and excitement onshore. Crowds of prospective masters gathered to bid for immigrants 'exposed for redemption sale.' Fellow countryfolk already settled in America came on board to refresh expected relatives and friends with bread, fruit, and beer or to glean news and collect letters from home. Paying passengers settled accounts and gathered belongings, whereas those sailing on credit tried or arrange for payment or prepared themselves for terms of servitude. . . . Non British passengers then made their way to the courthouse, where English officials required them to take the oath of allegiance to the King and his successors, renounce any allegiance to the Pope, and abide by the laws of the colony where they were settling. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

"apo"quot;;Fly

Julie Ponzi — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:12:00 GMT

Ben Boychuk brings to our attention this highly amusing story about Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd fame) and his little lost Obama pig. He's got some funny video too. I would say more but Ben says it so well. There's also some more video. But just go read Ben and see the videos. Almost, but still not quite as good as the taser boy. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

"-ar"apTa"&quo";ap;N"MarkDwn

William Voegeli — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:44:49 GMT

William Galston of the Brookings Institution said something interesting the other day, which is a common event. He told New York magazine's John Heilemann that the reason even many Democrats who admire Barack Obama think the fresh winner of the Iowa caucuses has gone stale is that he has "tried to be post-partisan on the cheap, through bring-us-together rhetoric and leadership style as opposed to substance." Heilemann agreed, lamenting "Obama's rebranding as a standard-issue liberal," whose every policy proposal could "have been put forward happily by Nancy Pelosi or Ted Kennedy."

Sen. Obama has come a remarkably long way towards the White House by speaking, nebulously, about replacing rancorous partisanship with "a different kind of politics." As Galston points out, though, inclusive processes and earnest, respectful attitudes can improve the tone of our political life, but will not resolve deep differences over substantive policies. In a review of The Audacity of Hope, written before it was clear Obama would even run for president in 2008, Michael Tomasky detected signs that this Democrat "is not a political warrior by temperament," but rather, "a believer in civic virtue, and in the possibility of good outcomes negotiated in good faith."

It's a lovely vision, but reality is going have other ideas. Mickey Kaus has argued that "half-a-loaf" political problems, ones that can be solved by both sides giving up things they don't care about very much, are neither numerous nor significant -- most of the easily solved problems have already been solved. "The problems we're left with," according to Kaus, "are problems where one side or the other is willing to fight to the death to protect a core demand that must be denied to achieve a solution."

Post-partisanship that wasn't on the cheap would acknowledge the policy questions that are intrinsically difficult, and the political problems that are daunting because of deeply held, irreconcilable views. Real leadership, in these circumstances, will often require telling one side, and perhaps both, that their core demands are going to have to be tossed overboard. The journalist Matt Miller, for example, floated the idea in 1999 of an ideologically eclectic rescue for floundering urban school systems: a big increase in federal aid, but also a much bigger role for vouchers. Several conservatives, including Milton Friedman, Sen. Lamar Alexander and school-choice activist Clint Bolick expressed misgivings but ultimately signed on, as did Kweisi Mfume of the NAACP. Miller next tried the idea out on Bob Chase, then president of the National Education Association:

Miller: Is there any circumstance under which that would be something that . . .

Chase: No.

Miller: . . . you guys could live with? Why?

Chase: No.

Miller: Double school spending . . .

Chase: No.

Miller: . . . in inner cities?

Chase: No.

Miller: Triple it . . .

Chase: No.

Miller: . . . but give them a voucher?

Chase: 'Cause, one, that's not going to happen. I'm not going to answer a hypothetical [question] when nothing like that is ever possible.

Miller: But teachers use hypotheticals every day.

Chase: Not in arguments like this we don't. . . . It's pure and simply not going to happen. I'm not even going to use the intellectual processes to see if in fact that could work or not work, because it's not going to happen. That's a fact.

Chase's position has an impregnable circularity: Vouchers aren't going to happen because teachers unions aren't going to talk about them, so there's no point in the unions talking about them since they're not going to happen.

The Obama 1.0 who won the Iowa caucuses came across as temperamentally and politically languid. In a New Yorker profile, "The Conciliator," one Obama supporter described hearing from many conservative friends who identified Obama as "the one Democrat I could support, not because he agrees with me, because he doesn't, but because I at least think he'll take my point of view into account." This very quality antagonized the legions of Democrats who, like Bob Chase, are in no mood for conciliation. Paul Krugman, for example, called Obama "naïve" for refusing to become a polarizing figure: "Anyone who thinks that the next president can achieve real change without bitter confrontation is living in a fantasy world."

Four months after Iowa, it's clear that Obama is not going to be able to capture the White House merely by insisting on the importance of better table manners. If Obama wants to do the heavy lifting real post-partisanship requires, he has the perfect foil in Hillary Clinton, whose campaign has become an increasingly desperate and shameless panderthon. She stridently tells every Democratic constituency that none of their demands are unaffordable or outlandish, all of their core demands are inviolable, and only greedy, mean-spirited Republicans stand between them and their wishes.

Rather than try to keep up with this demagoguery, Obama should emphasize issues that will make some people in his party angry. He's off to a good start in opposing the inane idea, advanced by both Hillary Clinton and John McCain, of a gas tax "holiday" for the summer. Perhaps he'll go on from there to embrace Matt Miller's compromise on public education, or to advocate supplanting race-based with class-based affirmative action. The political support he would lose would be offset by the respect he would gain for demonstrating that post-partisan credibility will have to be earned. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

A Suer Mentality

Richard Adams — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:11:47 GMT

In Monday's Wall Street Journal, Gail Heriot describes the rank thugishness of the American Bar Association's work accrediting law schools. The case of George Mason University Law School is typical.

GMU's problems began in early 2000, when the American Bar Association visited the law school, which has a somewhat conservative reputation, for its routine reaccreditation inspection. The site evaluation team was unhappy that only 6.5% of entering students were minorities.
Outreach was not the problem; even the site evaluation report (obtained as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests) conceded that GMU had a "very active effort to recruit minorities." But the school, the report noted, had been "unwilling to engage in any significant preferential affirmative action admissions program." Since most law schools were willing to admit minority students with dramatically lower entering academic credentials, GMU was at a recruitment disadvantage. The site evaluation report noted its "serious concerns" with the school's policy.
Over the next few years, the ABA repeatedly refused to renew GMU's accreditation, citing its lack of a "significant preferential affirmative action program" and supposed lack of diversity. The school stepped up its already-extensive recruitment efforts, but was forced to back away from its opposition to significant preferential treatment. It was thus able to raise the proportion of minorities in its entering class to 10.98% in 2001 and 16.16% in 2002.
Not good enough. In 2003, the ABA summoned the university's president and law school dean to appear before it personally, threatening to revoke the institution's accreditation.
GMU responded by further lowering minority admissions standards

And the harassment of GMU by the ABA continues. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Food or Health Care?

John Moser — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:26:29 GMT

According to this morning's local newspaper, a left-wing think tank called Policy Matters Ohio has added a new wrinkle to its argument for socialized medicine: Ohioans are "sacrificing other basic needs in order to pay for health care." One example the group gives is that lower-income people "may eat cheaper and less nutritious foods instead of more expensive fresh fruit, whole grains and vegetables."

Leaving aside the dubious claim that the reason lower-income people eat at McDonald's is that they're devoting all of their money toward health care, why aren't the good folks at Policy Matters Ohio complaining about the soaring price of "fresh fruit, whole grains and vegetables"? Could it be that they're hesitant to object to the diversion of so much of the world's cropland to the production of ethanol, the latest global-warming panacea? (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Peter Schramm — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:44:36 GMT

The U.S. Economy grew by 0.6% the last quarter. While this is not impressive (same as last quarter) it is better than expected and means that we are not in a recession; one economist calls it a "growth recession." The guy's a wordsmith. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Peter Lawler — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:23:58 GMT

Lacking the time or energy right now to hunt up my own links, here are some shaky opinions on the ones posted by others:

1. Did you notice the manly Mansfield's bold opinion in his hooking up review? He's endorsing some mean between the hooking-up culture of the elite institution and the purity culture of the evangelical college. Each extreme, apparently, is a denial of the truth about our eros. Extreme claims about both hooking up and purity turn out to be forms of bragging that are plainly unrealistic. I'm not saying I agree, but it's something worth talking about.

2. Berry College, always on the cutting edge, has already had a seminar on Mansfield's MANLINESS and Wolfe's I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS, on the philosopher and the novelist of manliness. There are some amazing similarities between the two manly guys' Jefferson lectures given in successive years.

3. Rev. Wright is sounding so insistently crazy that I confess I'm getting suspicious. People can reasonably say that Obama couldn't possibly agree with ALL THAT, and so the distancing Barack needs is being accomplished by his preacher, who might be in a sly way taking one for the good of the campaign.

4. To answer a comment in the thread: I completely agree with Mac Owens that with better luck and/or better strategy the South might have won the Civil War. And even the defeat of Hitler was far from inevitable and depended upon some luck.

5. All the manly exaggerations found in men who brag about hooking up were predicted by Tocqueville in DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA: The Americans take complacent pleasure in explaining that they've informed every moment of their lives by the doctrine of self-interest rightly understood. They brag, in other words, that love is for suckers etc. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

glas Feihass fae

Joseph Knippenberg — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:23:20 GMT

At Georgetown University, at least, it seems to be sealed. Despite excellent teaching reviews and support from unlikely sources, Douglas Feith's two-year teaching contract apparently won't be renewed. Oh, it's on the up-and-up. It was only a two year contract, after all. There was no promise of renewal.

But one wonders whether the colleagues who open-mindedly and hospitably greeted his appointment by calling him a war criminal might have been instrumental in showing him the door. And the administration did have an easy way out. It was only a two year contract, after all. (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)

Civil War strategy podcast

Peter Schramm — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:25:46 GMT

I talked withMac Owens about the military strategy in the Civil War. Very good stuff, of course, but, alas it's only about twenty minutes long. Thanks Mac! (Link to this Entry. Comments. Add Your Comments.)