Kevin Drum

BIDEN FOR VEEP?….Even Bayh is yesterday’s news. All the buzz today is about Joe Biden being Obama’s running mate. Would this be a bad choice? For the prosecution we have Jeralyn Merritt, who says he’s bad on crime issues. Matt Yglesias thinks his initial support for the Iraq war is a problem. Everyone despises his […]

ANNEXING OSSETIA?….So far Russia hasn’t said what it plans to do about the long term status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. However: This may change soon, as the Russian parliament is set to meet Aug. 26 to discuss the South Ossetian and Abkhaz recognition requests. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who publicly met with South Ossetian […]

DOOMED….This is a post without a sharp point to make. And maybe it’s just prompted by the fact that I read The Corner too much and I’ve gotten infected by their often hyperbolic tone. But I’m curious to know if anyone else has been picking up on a sense that conservatives are genuinely starting to […]

MOVING TIME….I have some news to share: on Friday, after four wonderful years at the Washington Monthly, I’ll be picking up my keyboard and moving to a new blog at Mother Jones magazine. Here’s the new URL: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum There nothing there yet except for a welcome message, but starting on Friday, that’s where I’ll be […]

HARRY AND LOUISE….This is sort of fascinating. Apparently Harry and Louise, the infamous kitchen table couple who helped torpedo Bill Clinton’s healthcare plan in 1993, are back. Just like last time, they endorse healthcare “reform,” and just like last time it’s not clear just what kind of reform they endorse. Ezra has the video and […]

McCAIN’S CHOICE….David Brooks writes today that John McCain tried to run an honorable campaign, but it just didn’t work: McCain and his advisers have been compelled to adjust to the hostile environment around them. They have been compelled, at least in their telling, to abandon the campaign they had hoped to run. Now they are […]

AL-QAEDA’S FUTURE….I saw this chart on a bunch of blogs yesterday and it left me puzzled. It comes from a poll of foreign policy experts, and it made me wonder what the other 49% thought. After all, isn’t Pakistan already the next al-Qaeda stronghold? Today the Center for American Progress posted the full poll results, […]

GEORGIA UPDATE….Monday has come and gone, so how’s that promised Russian withdrawal from Georgia going? Not so well, apparently: Journalists and diplomats viewing various Russian positions around the country Monday reported no sign of a general pullout. About the only possible evidence of a wind-down was a convoy of Russian trucks that a Reuters news […]

A POSSIBLY OBTUSE ECONOMIC QUESTION….In Stephen Mihm’s profile of bearish economist Nouriel Roubini this weekend, we first get a rundown of the various global economic crises of the 90s: Roubini began studying these countries and soon identified what he saw as their common weaknesses. On the eve of the crises that befell them, he noticed, […]

NEWT….I’ve been told a number of times that, movement conservative though he may be, Newt Gingrich is at least a serious person driven by serious ideas. Light years better than pure partisan animals like Tom DeLay and Karl Rove, for example. Well, he might be better than DeLay and Rove (YMMV of course), but there’s […]