archive

The worst of times for politics

From The Nation, one year later, the blockbuster Game Change can be read as much for how little election narratives explain about history as for the story of the 2008 campaign. From The Atlantic Monthly, Joe Biden really, truly did not want to be vice president, but almost two years in, he’s found his stride, and his unique life trajectory — by turns tragic, comic, and triumphant — may have made him the perfect man for a highly imperfect job. From FDL, a book salon on The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power by Paul Street. Obama’s Chief Issue: If Rahm Emanuel departs and the Dems lose the House, who should run the White House? James Surowiecki on the political failure of Obama’s stimulus package. Obama's big problem is with liberals and the left wing. Progressivism is not as amorphous as the current state of affairs indicates — this is no time to despair or retreat; it is a time to reengage and reassert progressive positions in more compelling ways. America is a joke: The worst of times for politics and media has been the best of times for The Daily Show’s John Stewart — and unfortunately things are getting even funnier. As much as Jon Stewart can make you laugh, there is something about all this Middle as Magically Absent of Ideology claim that just isn’t very funny. Laurie Essig thinks the Middle is just as ideological a stance as the Tea Party movement. The Forever Culture War: Even as we make progress on specific issues, the broader culture war seems to get uglier and uglier. We are no longer Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives — now we are utopians or not.