Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Politics and Leadership Archive
July 25, 2008
Mutterschaft und Apfelkuchen
Obama's Berlin speech without concrete proposals
July 02, 2008
Clark, McCain and the forms of courage
As the McCain-Clark dustup continues into its fourth day (mostly courtesy of McCain), it seems to me that there is one interesting way in which it reveals assumptions about Presidential qualifications. One could make a fairly plausible point about how being a POW would prepare someone for the Presidency: in a word, courage. It was courageous for McCain to fly...
June 08, 2008
National Security Policy and Politics
Two articles in the June 12th New York Review of Books remind of us of the gulf between our politics and the reality of what is needed to manage the threat of terrorism. Is it hopelessly naive to think about what the Obama campaign could do to overcome this gulf? Or should it concentrate on beating McCain on the established terrain and transforming it once in office?
April 28, 2008
Gas prices
Obama resisted enormous political temptation to score a cheap one on gasoline prices today, while Clinton went in the tank. Yay for him, and too bad for her. This round began when McCain floated the insultingly dumb idea of suspending federal gasoline taxes over the summer. This was just another piece of idiocy coming out of his policy closet of...
April 20, 2008
We will bury you, all in due time
Russia's Ambassador to NATO isn't looking to make friends.
March 25, 2008
Urdon't
The new PM of Pakistan is being sworn in, in English. Sounds odd. Apparently, Urdu is the national language and the language of the Constitution, but English is the official language. I understand that there’s a lot of resentment against native Urdu speakers and the dread Indian influence, but almost everyone understands Urdu, whereas only about half the population understands...
March 23, 2008
Inference and belief
Douglas Kmiec is a law professor at Pepperdine with resume entries in the Bush 41 and Reagan administrations and a spell as dean of the Catholic University Law School. He has just endorsed Obama on Slate. So far so good. But this post is not about the politics of an endorsement that has a lot of benefit for Obama, nor...
March 12, 2008
Life in Helsinki
Elliot Spitzer should run for office in Finland.
March 10, 2008
Staid lions and immortal porpoises
I think "to Spitzer" will soon be a verb.
March 07, 2008
It's not just fossil fuels
Let's play a kids' riddle game. My short-term benefits on first use are positive, and can be obtained at very low up-front cost. In your social circle, I indicate coolness and status. Once you use me, you find that the (again, short-term) benefits of using are increasingly greater than not using, even if you start to wish you had never...
Yerevan one to talk
In Armenian politics, Ross Perot would look reasonable.
March 02, 2008
Identity politics
Disclaimer, or maybe cowardly defensive whine, first: With a professional mother and wife, and two daughters, I hope I've got at least some feminist inclinations. With a minority-Anglo customer base (I teach at Berkeley), similarly about race. (I am also familiar with the humbling lessons of implicit-association research, hence "at least some".) The two sensitivities are definitely not any kind...
February 27, 2008
In Louisiana??!!
"Crooked as a dog's hind leg," my father used to say. That's Louisiana, and the smirking insouciance with which its governing class (at least) has always wallowed in its own corruption only made it more repulsive. Well, the new governor has muscled its legislature into some real reforms, and I'm deeply impressed. If this sticks, it should be a leadership...
February 17, 2008
Revenge of the nerds
Clinton vs Obama in the science-policy bout. Round 1 to Clinton.
January 28, 2008
Muddling through II - a Frenchie alternative
My scenario for British electrical generation: 25 GW of nuclear and 75 GW of wind
January 27, 2008
Muddling through I
British energy policy: a well-intentioned muddle without a coherent target scenario
January 24, 2008
Modelizer in Chief
What is French for femme fatale?
January 09, 2008
McCain Disqualifies Himself for the Presidency
There's been lots of ink spilled about John McCain's assertion that we should stay in Iraq for 100 years, but this latest quote might be even more damaging--or at least it should: As for pulling out of Iraq, McCain said there is only one man who will determine when that is appropriate and the name he mentioned was not his...
January 07, 2008
Inside and outside
Credit for the Civil Rights Acts goes to LBJ to the exclusion of MLK?
Does Hillary Clinton really know so little about how big changes get made?
December 13, 2007
The Senate Democrats: Enablers of the GOP
The Washington Post presents us with a thoroughly depressing story today on the inability of Congressional Democrats to come together on a political strategy for fighting against one of the most reviled Presidents in American history. But the story reveals the heart of the problem: the Senate Democrats' inability to understand how to create a narrative. House Democrats are of...
December 06, 2007
Two More Filibusters
Senate Republicans have now decided to filibuster two MORE critical bills coming out of the House, as well as Senate committees. One bill would amend the Alternative Minimum Tax to give relief to middle-income taxpayers; the other is the energy bill, which would raise federal fuel efficiency standards for the first time in 30 years and set renewable energy portfolio...
September 28, 2007
Gandhi in Burma
Aung San Suu Kyi's Gandhian politics of non-violence.
August 10, 2007
The Real Difference Between the Parties
EJ Dionne has a superb yet nauseating column about why the Democrats caved on FISA: essentially, the Republicans sprang the issue on them at the last minute, and the Dems worried that if a terrorist attack occurred in August while Congress was out of session, they would get blamed. Matt Stoller glosses this by saying that the Blue Dogs may...
August 08, 2007
Learning from the bridge collapse
Now that the wreckage of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis is no longer all over our screens, it's worth considering what the episode should teach us about infrastructure, public policy, politics, and engineering. Part of the answer is, not much: it's very tricky to interpret rare and exciting events. This one, recognizing that any accidental death is a terrible experience...
August 02, 2007
Reflections on the I-35W bridge
The I-35W bridge was two arch-cantilever trusses, with smaller trusses parallel to the river supporting the roadway. Each of the main trusses rested on two concrete columns, one on each side of the river. The design highlights a characteristic design tradeoff: a truss like this is statically determinate, which means that the all the forces in every element can be...
July 08, 2007
Global Warming Concerts
The weekend's Live Earth concerts against global warming are at the intersection of three of my favorite bêtes noires, namely (i) the idea that the arts are validated when they do something "useful" like help kids learn math, or push economic development in failing downtowns; (ii) putting science and real consequences aside in favor of romantic symbolism and gestures in...
June 11, 2007
More on hot gas
The author of the LA Times piece I linked to in this earlier post about gasoline thermal expansion, Elizabeth Douglass, was nice enough to send some comments and useful links (for example, NIST discussion of point-of-sale fluid measurement). For a working reporter with deadlines, I consider this pretty classy behavior. I think her piece was a good roundup of the...
June 10, 2007
Only the best for us
Paul Krugman has no respect for citizens' time, no understanding of excellence, and no respect for efficiency. I'm not sure he's a real economist, even though he plays one in AER, Princeton senior common rooms, etc. In today's column, he suggests that amateurs and unqualified people do their own thinking about candidates' records and actions. His lead is to present...
May 28, 2007
A Memorial Day Message
Looking at the photograph that Mike just posted, I have to recall the appropriate epitaph for the management of the war, set forth by my friend Gideon Rose in a Washington Post article. Writing in 2005, the always-cautious Rose said that it was too early to judge whether anything could be salvaged from the war, but it is not too...
May 01, 2007
May Day
Viewed by a red-diaper baby, for whose parents' circle the 20th Congress was as traumatic as the Dodgers' and Giants' departure from New York the next year was for me and my friends - but even more disillusioning for us as we realized how much of what we had accepted as the foundation of our world was crumbling - May...
April 01, 2007
Welcoming the turncoats
If the President's former chief campaign strategist is now switching sides, can't we find something nice to say about him?
February 24, 2007
Is Lieberman superfluous?
Apparently the Senate Organizing Resolution passed last month is good to the end of the Congress. So even if Joe Lieberman switched parties, the Democrats would still control the Senate.
February 21, 2007
Support the Troops
In response to the completely repulsive story of the slum in which the Army has parked its wounded at Walter Reed, Army Secretary Francis Harvey whines that it was a "leadership failure" and that he had no idea, if he had only known, and so on. I guess he has in mind the other leadership in some parallel universe. Harvey,...
February 02, 2007
Easiest Post EVER
Over at MyDD, diarist Progressive Boy asks, "After 6 Years Can Democrats Finally Forgive Ralph Nader?". No. That is all....
January 23, 2007
SOTU: Not even trying anymore
Reports show that the Dear Leader is now going to call for energy security and a reduction in gasoline usage. Again, laughter is the best response: Aides hint of a major pronouncement on energy in the speech before Congress and the nation Tuesday night. Yet the president is expected to take a predictable path, urging expanded use of ethanol in...
January 12, 2007
Vietnam, the Democrats and foreign policy
The conventional wisdom, both in the blogosphere and in Washington, is that although the Democrats were right about Vietnam, their anti-war advocacy destroyed their credibility on foreign policy, allowing the Republicans to take the mantle of national security. The lesson is supposedly clear that current Democrats should not be too aggressive in an antiwar stance. So let me ask a...
January 11, 2007
A glimpse into the mind of Condi
This story raises the question, do being blind, deaf, and devoid of discrimination or judgment constitute disqualification for a cabinet post? Update: Boy, is she on a roll: "It's bad policy to speculate on what you'll do if a plan fails when you're trying to make a plan work." (via TPM)...
January 08, 2007
Schwarzenegger and health care: Don't get greedy
The Governator announced today his new plan for California health care. From the very sketchy details currently available, it doesn't seem like a terrible plan, although it could be better. It appears to be basically a pay-or-play program similar to the kind that he opposed a couple of years ago: business must either ensure their workers or pay 4% of...
December 14, 2006
Health tip
Don't eat a sardine sandwich and chocolate chip cookies in the evening. Last night, I did that, and dreamed someone snuck up to the bed and put a tinfoil hat on my head while I was asleep. Then I dreamed that I had the following dream: January 5, 2007 My fellow Americans: As I speak to you today, US aircraft...
November 14, 2006
The House Majority Leader's Race: 3 Comments
1) If Murtha is smart, then his campaign should include a promise that he will immediately ask the House Ethics Committee to investigate him. Murtha's ethical issues are disturbing but not overwhelming: but this only as far as we know now. The Democrats absolutely cannot let the GOP be the ones to pick up the rock and be shocked, shocked...
October 19, 2006
Repeat after me
I don't understand why we haven't heard this endlessly this fall, but it's not too late to start; I'd like every Democratic stump speech to work it in somehow, and it should resound through the halls of Congress for the next two years: "I wish we could _________ ; it's important and it's the right thing to do. But Bush...
October 15, 2006
The Professional Pol--Part Two
In contrast to McCain, Joe Lieberman's task is relatively easy, but he still has to play his cards right. Chris Bowers wonders whether Lieberman will actually caucus with the Dems if wins in November. As much as I agree that a Senate hinging on Lieberman's choice is a pretty nauseating prospect, I have a hard time believing that Holy Joe...
The professional pol--Part One
Mark's observation about McCain's sudden non-appearance for Tom Reynolds shows Arizona's senior senator at his most canny. The question is at what point he becomes too clever-by-half. Remember that the only thing that McCain cares about is winning the Republican nomination. Under normal circumstances, that would mean pulling out all the stops. But two things counsel against that here: 1)...
October 07, 2006
Foleygate is not an ironic diversion
I have been mulling the ' irony' that the Republicans may be turfed out "not because of spending recklessness, corruption, torture, big government, pork, and a hideously botched war ... but because of a sex scandal which doesn't even have (so far as we know) any actual sex. " That's Andrew Sullivan, approvingly retailed by Kevin Drum. I hate to...
October 05, 2006
Eviscerating responsibility
As it seems to be unfolding, the Republican response to the very awkward Foley/page situation is following a familiar script, perfected as I recall by Ronald Reagan, that should be clearly parsed, the better to deplore its cowardice and real evil: (1) Search up the hierarchy of command until you reach the level at which the affair in question is...
August 17, 2006
Andrew Young and Urban Economics
Andrew Young, whom I remember as a smart and decent guy although I didn't agree with him about everything, has been at the center of a profoundly saddening flap over remarks he made flacking for Wal-Mart. His observation is that Wal-Mart bettered the lives of people in his Atlanta neighborhood, which I infer to be mostly black, by out-competing small...
July 06, 2006
Defeat from within
The Bush team has made it very hard to fill jobs in the military, so recruiters have been scraping the bottom of the barrel, and the SPLC says they've been vacuuming up some real vermin. As about a third of the armed forces are racial minorities (here is some 2001 data), one speculates only with real alarm about the effect...
June 27, 2006
On burning the flag and trashing the Constitution
An anti-Flag-burning Constitutional amendment would be an abomination. But a statue seems much less offensive, and I'm all for Hillary Clinton's move to give her colleagues shelter from the storm.
June 14, 2006
Engagements
Scott T. Paul and Mark Leon Goldberg at TPMcafé are following John Bolton's zeal on Darfur. Stoically fulfilling a prior engagement at a London Thatcherite think tank, Bolton gave his precious support to other Security Council ambassadors on a three-country, four-conflict junket through scenic Central Africa.My British counterpart is in Sudan today – or maybe in Chad, I forget which....
May 25, 2006
The Democrats and National Security: Israelization
One of the brewing themes through Blue Blogistan is MSM's casual assumption that the Democratic Party is too far left to be trusted on national security. This outrages folks like Atrios, who point out that most Americans want out of the Iraq war and are trusted more on that issue than the Republicans. The Moose generally retorts that the Democrats...
April 05, 2006
Take the kids—leave the cannoli
More on population decrease and its causes and costs.
April 04, 2006
Depopulation cont.
Several readers wrote with comments similar to Andy's reactions to my post on the low birth rates in most of Europe and their probably consequences. Taking Andy's points in order, 1. Yes the average population density of Europe is high compared to the US. That is not why housing is expensive in those of its cities people really want to...
April 03, 2006
Europe: nobody goes there any more; it's too crowded.
Mike O'Hare wonders why Europe's population decline causes so little alarm. Could it be because there's nothing wrong with it?
April 01, 2006
Dooms loom, and the band plays on - I
Italians and Frenchpeople are now on the endangered-species list. How come no on in Italy or France seems to care?
February 15, 2006
Ura and Omote
Why does Dick Cheney, holder of an office that has historically been a backwater of irrelevance, think he can run a private and independent administration? The answer lies in a historic reversal of the loci of reality between the ura and omote of governance in the US. These words denote a pair of fundamental Japanese philosophical concepts: ura means "behind,...