American links

May 30, 2008 08:00

About the assault on free speech in Canada and on-going divisions in the West.

The awkward politics of affirmative action.

It is an election year, so the US Supreme Court is handing down a lot fewer 5:4 decisions. Or maybe there are other factors at work. About why conservatives care about the courts more than liberals.

About how the Democratic Party has changed in its attitude to foreign policy: Barack Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand up to his party's left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign. How the Democrats are inflexible on Iraq: They have been so committed to a false narrative of American defeat that they cannot acknowledge the progress that has been made on the ground. As the news from Iraq has got better, the media coverage has got less and less.

Being unimpressed by Obama getting all precious about Dubya’s Knesset speech: SINCE THE definition of appeasement is to reward others for their bad behavior, and since the US has refused for 29 years to reward the Iranians for their bad behavior by having presidential summits with Iranian leaders, Obama's pledge represents a massive act of appeasement. The metastatic gaffe. President Kennedy experienced the dangers of premature negotiation. Successful negotiation requires building up leverage beforehand. Obama seems to have problems being consistent on Venezuela and on Iran. Obama reminds me of Jimmy Carter in the lead up to the 1976 election, but with more eloquence and charisma and even less experience. He seems very likely to win the Presidency and be a bad President.

How the hunger to win favours the Democrats. About Obama’s amazing money-raising machine. Obama is polling consistently ahead of Hillary among Democratic voters but, unlike Hillary, doesn’t consistently beat McCain among voters in general. The Democrats should probably look at their nominating system, a triumph of rules over “count every vote”.

elections, american, links, friction

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