Five years ago, the invasion of Iraq began. Five years ago, we were promised a short-term fight to get rid of Saddam Hussein and purge Iraq of WMDs. Five years later, we’re still there–and we’re in the middle of a presidential election that will determine what the future holds with regards to Iraq. There are basically two kinds of Iraq policies out there right now, and they are primarily differentiated by a single question: How strong is al Qaeda in Iraq?
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Mar 202008
Mar 182008
This morning Barack Obama gave a wonderful speech on race in America, specifically confronting the controversy surrounding some statements made by his pastor. If you haven’t watched the speech or read the text, I would recommend that you do so. In particular, I applaud Obama for attempting to do two extremely difficult things.
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Mar 172008
A fascinating quote from Rush Limbaugh that I picked up from the Boston Globe:
“I want our party to win. I want the Democrats to lose,” Limbaugh said. “They’re in the midst of tearing themselves apart right now. It is fascinating to watch. And it’s all going to stop if Hillary loses.”
He added, “I know it’s a difficult thing to do to vote for a Clinton, but it will sustain this soap opera, and it’s something I think we need.”
According to the Globe, more than 200,000 republicans responded to the call and voted for Clinton in Texas and Ohio, which may be what’s keeping her in the race. I remember when California was debating open primaries, strategic voting was one reason that opponents used to argue against it. Interesting to see it in action.
Mar 142008
Unemployment is up. Inflation is rising faster than wages. The dollar is historically week. Interest rates are already low, and can’t be lowered too much further. Personal savings rates are extremely low, while consumer debt is very high–which mean that a short-term boost to consumer spending is unlikely (and unwise). The stock market is down more than 14% since its high less than six months ago. The economy is in serious trouble–as serious as it’s been since at least the 1970s. It’s also an election year, which means we’re being flooded with “solutions”. Some of them are good ideas. Some of them are bad ideas.
I’ll start with the bad:
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It seems increasingly likely that something will be done about the mysterious Florida and Michigan delegates. Texas and Ohio didn’t really solve anything, most super delegates are dragging their feet making an endorsement, and it looks like the delegate count will remain close enough heading into the convention that Florida and Michigan will actually matter. Moreover, as more and more Democratic party officials contemplate a general election fight with McCain, they don’t want to be seen as disenfranchising the same voters who many feel were disenfranchised in 2000–and thereby “cost” Gore the election. In any case, I thought it might be interesting to go through the pluses, and minuses, of the different possibilities.
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