Kevin Drum

ATTACKING JOHN McCAIN….Is John McCain an unrepentant warmonger who wants to cut taxes so his beer heiress wife can take home a few more dollars per year? Beats me. But as a campaign attack tactic, it ain’t gonna work. Instead, why not concentrate on character critiques that have some real grounding in reality? Just to […]

MALIKI’S CLOUT….Juan Cole does some translation from Arabic to bring us the latest news from Iraq: Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora will visit Baghdad this week, seeking petroleum at reduced prices for his country from Iraq. This visit follows on that of King Abdullah II of Jordan, which involved a […]

RICH….What is “rich”? I’m here to give you an answer with no shilly-shallying. I believe that Americans, for better or worse, believe that rich = millionaire. That is, someone with a million dollars in net worth. But here’s the catch: that’s what Americans thought a century ago. In today’s money, that’s about $20 million or […]

OBAMA AT SADDLEBACK….Liberals have been in a dither for several weeks now over Barack Obama’s supposedly listless campaign performance following his return from Europe, and as near as I can tell this turned into something close to panic after his performance in Saturday’s Saddleback Church pseudo-debate. Obama was deliberate and thoughtful! McCain was direct and […]

GEORGIA UPDATE….So how’s that Russian pullout from Georgia going? Jonathan Finer of the Washington Post reports: GORI, Georgia, Aug. 17 — Russia pledged Sunday to begin removing its troops from Georgia on Monday, but the streets of this occupied city reflected a broadening, not a waning, of Russia’s military incursion…..During a reporter’s 24-hour stay in […]

THE MONETARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX….Matt Yglesias just finished reading Larry Bartels’ Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, which argues (among other things) that Democrats are better for the economy than Republicans. But Matt says this is a mysterious claim: What this book made me wish for was more economics: Bartels gives us a […]

GEORGIA UPDATE….The latest on the ceasefire: Russia is to begin withdrawing its troops from neighboring Georgia on Monday, two days after it signed a revised framework for a deal to halt the fighting there, which has stirred some of the deepest divisions between world powers since the cold war. The Kremlin announced on Sunday that […]

SADDLEBACK POSTMORTEM….I only saw the tail end of Barack Obama’s half of the great Saddleback Church semi-debate tonight, but I caught most of the highlights afterward and I saw all of John McCain’s performance. The CNN talking heads all thought the big difference between the two was that McCain came across as direct and forceful […]

McCAIN’S BIG THREE….Did John McCain really just say that Meg Whitman was one of the three wisest advisors he could think of? I mean, nothing against Whitman, but seriously?

CHEAT SHEET….Since the Russo-Georgian war is complicated, I thought everyone might appreciate a quick primer: Shorter liberal view: “This isn’t to condone Russia’s conduct, but….” Shorter conservative view: “Yes, Saakashvili acted recklessly by sending in troops first, but….” See? It’s easier than you thought! You may now return to your regularly scheduled Olympics watching.