Apparently, the Obama administration is set to send weapons to the Syrian rebels. The New York Times article reporting that implies that this may be too little, too late if our plan is to prevent a military victory by Assad. To do that, we’d have to take out lots of Syria’s airstrips. All this is […]
Andrew Sabl
Andrew Sabl is a Visiting Professor in the Program on Ethics, Politics, and Economics and in Political Science at Yale University.
Posted inPolitics
Benghazi—An Honest Plea for Specific Charges
Wednesday’s hearings over Benghazi (or as Ed Kilgore is fond of calling it to stress conservative hype, Benghazi!) seem to have been a big nothingburger in terms of actual scandal. As Steve Benen puts it, Eight months after the attack itself, I know Republicans think there’s been a cover-up, but I haven’t the foggiest idea […]
Posted inPolitics
Conservatives on Gay Marriage: How Will They Continue to Oppose it?
I’ve been thinking, since he posted it, about Jonathan Chait’s piece several days back regarding the anti-marriage-equality movement’s swan song. Alertly noting the tone of elegy and self-pity in Maggie Gallagher’s latest musings on her political activity, Chait wrote: The surest sign of resignation is that Gallagher has redirected her focus from stopping gay marriage […]
Posted inPolitics
The Republicans’ “Serious” Offer, in One Chart.
Confused about what exactly the GOP’s latest fiscal offer includes? Wondering whether it might not be some sort of conservative-Democratic proposal from Erskine Bowles, in spite of not being Simpson-Bowles, nor proposed by Bowles, nor endorsed by Bowles? Steve Benen has come to our aid: That pretty much does it. The one thing I disagree […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
UC Survives: Prop. 30 Passes (Fairly Easily)
Proposition 30, the initiative that temporarily raises taxes so that—among other nice things—the schools won’t have to shutter themselves for a month and UC can remain a very good (though no longer great) university, has passed. In the end it wasn’t even all that close (pace a hand-wringing liberal blog post that seems to have […]
Posted inPolitics
The Message of the Election: Some Good Deeds Go Unpunished
Standing out among the mainstream media’s determination to echo the standard Republican talking point that only GOP election victories actually count, Steve Benen nails the election’s real significance: Had Obama come up short, the immediate threats to key public policies would have been significant, but the more sweeping consequence would have been the lasting damage […]
Posted inPolitics
Who Still Regards Their Votes as Secret?
About half an hour ago I was eating lunch (outside: this is L.A.) and overheard two female undergraduates talking about heading to the polls. One asked the other, “how are you voting?” The reply, with a smile: “none of your beeswax!” The answer seemed unusual–not unheard-of, and when said with a smile not offensive, but […]
Posted inPolitics
“A New Reality, an Old Infrastructure”
Earlier today New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a press conference (no video or transcript yet, but I’ll be happy to provide it later if I can find it) again gave a version of the line I’ve been hearing from him since last night: “We have a new reality, in terms of weather patterns, but […]
Posted inPolitics
How Obama Just Won Ohio: Moderate Isolationism
In 2004, John Kerry said in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, we shouldn’t be opening firehouses in Baghdad and shutting them in the United States of America. The line got huge applause. Christopher Hitchens noted and feared this, calling it “one of the sourest and nastiest and cheapest notes to have been struck […]
Posted inPolitics
Snarky Campaign Slogan Contest
My friends at The Democratic Strategist have for a while now been running at the top of their home page a picture of an Etch-a-Sketch containing the words, “Romney: you may not agree with what he says but you can trust him to deny he ever said it.” That’s good. And it’s the kind of […]
