The New Republic - Read by OutloudOpinion

Maliki vs. Allawi 3.10.10

Michael Crowley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:08:22 -0500

In the late summer of 2007, Baghdad was buzzing with talk of a coup. Iraq was gripped by horrific civil war, and the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seemed at best unable to do anything about it. (At worst he appeared guilty of contributing to sectarian violence himself). In November, U.S. national security advisor Steve Hadley had returned from a visit with Maliki and reported grave doubts about the prime minister’s competence. “[T]he reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action,” Hadley wrote in a memo leaked to the media. On August 21, George W. Bush himself seemed to encourage Maliki’s overthrow. “The fundamental question is: Will the government respond to the demands of the people?” Bush asked at a press conference. “If the government doesn't respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government.” It was practically an invitation to a coup. by OutloudOpinion

Are Insurance Companies the Problem? 3.10.10

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:07:22 -0500

The insurance industry is striking back. Attacked by the Democrats, harangued by activists, and reviled by the public, insurers have launched a major public relations campaign designed to make one simple point: It’s not their fault that American health care is so dysfunctional. The proof, according to the industry, is in the numbers: Their profits account for less than 1 percent of what America spends on health care in a given year. And you know what? It’s a valid point. by OutloudOpinion

The Greatest Virtue of the Republican Budget Plan 3.9.10

William Galston — Tue, 9 Mar 2010 10:14:09 -0500

This past Friday, without much fanfare, CBO submitted its analysis of President Obama’s proposed FY 2011 budget. The bottom line is worse than we thought. Despite sustained economic recovery, the budget deficit under the president’s proposal never falls below 4 percent of GDP over the next decade and rises to 5.6 percent by 2020. The aggregate deficit during that period is $9.761 trillion—close to $1 trillion each year on average. Not surprisingly, debt held by the public rises steadily and reaches 90 percent of GDP by 2020. If the historical study of financial crises conducted by Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart is correct, that level of debt is enough to reduce our long-tem growth prospects by about a percentage point each year. by OutloudOpinion

It's the Dinero, Caudillo: Why Spain can't anger Hugo Chávez, even if he's aiding Basque terrorists. 3.9.10

Farancisco Toro — Tue, 9 Mar 2010 10:13:11 -0500

What were two members of a violent Basque separatist group doing with 11 members of Colombia's narco-Marxist insurgency in a remote corner of southwestern Venezuela in August 2007? According to a blockbuster indictment handed down by a Spanish judge last week, they were participating in a kind of intercontinental terrorist training camp held under the aegis of the Venezuelan military. by OutloudOpinion

What, You Have a Better Idea for Cost Control? 3.8.10

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 8 Mar 2010 10:17:40 -0500

David Brooks thinks it. David Gregory thinks it. The Washington Post editorial page thinks it. And, what the heck, I think it. If health care reform passes Congress, the final legislation probably won't cut the cost of medical care as quickly as seems possible on paper. But would the legislation make a good start--as good a start as possible, given political reality? Brooks, Gregory, the Post, and plenty of other critics seem to think the answer is "no." I think they are nuts. And since arguments about costs are likely to loom large in the thinking of nervous House Democrats, it's worth explaining why. by OutloudOpinion

Labor and Delivery: An obscure nominee and a hinge moment for the Obama presidency. 3.8.10

John B. Judis — Mon, 8 Mar 2010 10:16:28 -0500

In a few weeks, Barack Obama will have a chance to do something he hasn’t done particularly well during his first year in office: successfully defy his opponents and, at the same time, reassure his most loyal supporters. At issue is the fate of Craig Becker, one of Obama’s nominees for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Last month, Becker was denied a vote on his nomination when Senate Democrats failed to overcome a GOP filibuster. Now, the Senate’s coming Easter break will give Obama an opportunity to put Becker on the NLRB via recess appointment. And there are good reasons--among them, the need to restore some semblance of functioning government in Washington--why he shouldn’t pass it up. by OutloudOpinion

Can The Climate-Bill Trio Appease Big Oil? 3.4.10

Bradford Plumer — Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:03:26 -0500

Details about the forthcoming Senate climate bill are still scarce, alas. As mentioned earlier, the hot rumor of late is that Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman are planning to unveil a plan that would have a cap-and-trade system for emissions from electric utilities and then a separate "carbon fee" for oil and other transportation fuels, with the revenue either getting funneled back to consumers or used for projects that reduce oil consumption. And there are even some signs that this strategy could boost the bill's chances of passage. Darren Samuelsohn reports that the trial balloon is going over well with the big oil companies, who prefer the fee approach to a single unified cap-and-trade program: If accepted, the approach—supported by ConocoPhillips, BP America and Exxon Mobil Corp.—could rearrange the politics of the Senate climate debate and potentially open up votes that may not be there otherwise. by OutloudOpinion

Sink or Swim The GOP’s Dickensian fix for health care. 3.4.10

Jonathan Chait — Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:02:38 -0500

When you consider the differences between Democrats and Republicans on health care, you probably think in terms of scale. Democrats want to enact a big reform, while Republicans favor incremental progress. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor coos, “We want to take a much more commonsense, modest, incremental approach, trying to address the first issue first, which is cost, and then go on to try to deal with some of the things that the president and Speaker Pelosi want to do.” Within a recent six-month span, Republicans on the Senate floor used the phrase “step-by-step” to describe their approach to health care an astonishing 173 times. by OutloudOpinion

The Public Isn’t Enthused About Health Care Reform. So What? 3.3.10

William Galston — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 12:29:05 -0500

“With the passage of time,” former Bush administration official Pete Wehner writes today, “President Bush’s decision to champion a new counterinsurgency strategy, including sending 30,000 additional troops to Iraq when most Americans were bone-weary of the war, will be seen as one of the most impressive and important acts of political courage in our lifetime.” Wehner may turn out to be right. And his argument has broader implications that deserve our attention. Wehner tacitly defines political courage as the willingness to go against public opinion in pursuit of what a leader believes to be the public interest. Fair enough. And unless one believes—against all evidence—that democracies can do without courage, so defined, it follows that there’s nothing necessarily undemocratic about defying public opinion when the stakes are high. After all, the people will soon have the opportunity to pass judgment on the leader’s decision. And they will be able to judge that decision, not by the claims of its supporters or detractors, but by its results. by OutloudOpinion

All In: Don't look now, but Obama is finally living up to his promise. 3.3.10

Jonathan Cohn — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 12:28:17 -0500

President Obama began his remarks in the East Room on Wednesday with a reminiscence. Almost exactly one year before, he noted, he had stood in the very same spot, formally launching his initiative to reform America’s health care system. I happened to be there that day and I remember it well. Representatives of every interest group were there, as were congressional leaders of both parties. In breakout groups and then a question-and-answer session that followed Obama’s speech, there was much talk of consensus--of a determination to work together in good faith. by OutloudOpinion

The GOP's Pre-Existing Ideology: Why the Republican plan to insure the already-ill doesn't work. 3.2.10

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 2 Mar 2010 13:44:31 -0500

You’d have to be pretty cold-hearted to think somebody should go without insurance just because she has a kid with asthma, was born with diabetes, or survived a bout of breast cancer--just three of the conditions that today would render an individual “uninsurable” in the eyes of the industry. To fix this problem, President Obama and the Democrats would prohibit insurers from denying coverage, or even charging higher rates, to people with pre-existing medical conditions. It’s one of the most stubbornly popular elements of their reform plan, one Republicans have found virtually impossible to attack, at least directly. It’s also given the Democrats a great talking point. Whenever Republicans say the country would be better off without reform, Democrats respond by asking what the Republican answer to pre-existing conditions is. by OutloudOpinion

The Republican Civil War Your guide to this year's primaries 3.2.10

Ed Kilgore — Tue, 2 Mar 2010 13:37:04 -0500

All across the country, Republicans are fantasizing about a gigantic electoral tide that will sweep out deeply entrenched Democratic incumbents this November. In their telling, this deep-red surge will be so forceful as to dislodge even legislators who don’t look vulnerable now, securing GOP control of both houses of Congress. But could this scenario really come to pass? That will depend, in part, on what type of Republican Party the Democrats are running against in the fall. by OutloudOpinion

The Inkblot Test: Do Democrats have 217 votes, or don't they? 3.1.10

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 1 Mar 2010 12:26:56 -0500

An article that ran in Politico on Friday provided a Rorschach test for those of us following the health care reform debate. The story was about reform’s prospects following President Obama’s bipartisan meeting. And it dwelt, at length, with the situation in the House. In order to enact reform, as you probably know, the House will have to pass the Senate bill as written, as well as pass amendments that the Senate can consider through the budget reconciliation process. It won’t be easy, the Politico article explained: by OutloudOpinion

Summited Out: The GOP wants capitulation, not compromise. 2.26.10

Jonathan Cohn — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:21:31 -0500

Who won? It's the exact same question people asked in 2008, after each of the presidential debates. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now. What's "winning"--scoring more debate points, making fewer gaffes, or simply appealing to more voters? And aren't all those judgments pretty subjective anyway? But if Thursday's event didn't produce a winner, it was clarifying. Health care reform, as I've said many times now, is really about achieving three basic goals: Making sure everybody has insurance, making sure coverage is good, and making sure that, over time, medical care will cost less. Thursday's discussion revealed the stark differences between the two parties--not just over how to pursue these goals but also over whether they are even worth pursuing. by OutloudOpinion

Can Wal-Mart Use Its Power For Good? 2.26.10

Bradford Plumer — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:20:35 -0500

Wal-Mart's enormous leverage over its suppliers has attracted plenty of attention in recent years. Usually, critics home in on the negative impacts. The retailer can dictate prices to factories around the world (after all, a single producer needs Wal-Mart more than vice versa), which encourages ruthless cost-cutting that, in turn, can lead to lower wages and shoddier working conditions. And that's not even the half of it. Barry Lynn wrote a long piece for Harper's in 2006 exploring the pros and cons of Wal-Mart's vast "monopsony" power. by OutloudOpinion

Why This Summit Matters 2.25.10

Jonathan Cohn — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:46:01 -0500

For several hours, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee grilled the chief executive officer of Wellpoint, to see why the company's California subsidiary was raising health insurance premiums by nearly 40 percent for some customers. The testimony, combined with documents that the Committee had obtained, painted an illuminating if unsurprising picture. It appears that Anthem Blue Cross, Wellpoint’s subsidiary, was trying to protect profit margins at a time of rising medical costs. That meant, among other things, charging more money to people that were running up higher medical expenses--people who, because of their pre-existing medical conditions, would have tremendous difficulty finding comparable coverage elsewhere. by OutloudOpinion

Poll Tax: Why politicians don’t always know what’s good for them. 2.25.10

Neera Tanden — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:44:47 -0500

What can defeat health care reform? Polls—or more specifically, Democratic politicians misreading them. Most of the data that crosses their desks these days resembles the numbers from the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, which shows the public evenly divided on reform—43 percent in favor, 43 percent opposed. (And that was one of the more favorable ones!) Numbers likes these have members of congress worrying about their own election prospects and desperately hoping the issue goes away. And, of course, on the surface, this assessment is rational. by OutloudOpinion

What the Republicans Don't Tell You 2.24.10

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:10:33 -0500

Who says the Republicans don’t have a health care plan? Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor reminded viewers that he and his colleagues introduced a proposal in July. Even better, he said, it would bring down insurance premiums. We have a better way... it's a plan that is focused very squarely on bringing down costs and health care costs for the American people. Our House bill is validated by the Congressional Budget Office and will bring down health care insurance premiums.” by OutloudOpinion

No Hire Power The lousy, no good, just about worthless job bill. 2.24.10

Dean Baker — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:09:42 -0500

The latest unemployment statistics show a much worse story than had been previously accepted. The Obama administration is now projecting that the unemployment rate will average 10 percent this year, 9 percent in 2011, and more than 8 percent in 2012. It is not projected to get back to a more normal rate until 2016. The severity of the problem would easily justify another stimulus package as large or larger than the one passed last year. Instead, it looks like we are going to get a $15 billion jobs package based on a proposal from Senators Charles Schumer and Orrin Hatch. Not only is the Schumer-Hatch bill too small by a factor of 30 or 40, its design is so flawed that it may not lead to many new jobs at all. by OutloudOpinion

Bipartisanship! Malpractice reform: a conservative idea Obama should embrace. 2.23.10

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:24:37 -0500

Ever since President Barack Obama announced he'd be having a bipartisan meeting to talk about health care reform, Republicans have been denouncing it as a charade. He's not really interested in their ideas, they say. And he doesn't really want their support. But is the problem that Obama won't listen to the Republicans--or that the Republicans won't listen to Obama? One way to answer that question is to watch what happens at Thursday's health “summit” meeting if discussion turns to medical malpractice reform. by OutloudOpinion

The Republican Obama The force is strong with Marco Rubio. 2.23.10

John B. Judis — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:23:41 -0500

Politicians who hold or aspire to high office have learned the hard way (e.g Trent Lott speaking at Strom Thurmond’s birthday party) that when you speak to a select group of loyalists in these viral times, you are also addressing a national audience, including people who would like nothing better than to latch onto some gaffe or fringe conviction. So when Marco Rubio—the former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives who is running for Senate against Governor Charlie Crist (and leading in the polls)—spoke to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington last Thursday, he had no easy task ahead of him. by OutloudOpinion

The Last, Best Shot 2.22.10

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:09:18 -0500

"This is the last, best shot." That's how one veteran policy wonk described the state of health care reform to me a few days ago. And that sounds about right. On Monday morning, the White House will publish its final vision for health care reform. It will be a series of changes to the Senate bill, designed to accommodate both the concerns of the House and the concerns of the public more generally. (Among other things, it will include a new proposal to stop the sorts of rate hikes California's Blue Cross plan recently proposed.) by OutloudOpinion

How Many Lives Does the Public Option Have? 2.19.10

Jonathan Cohn — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:49:50 -0500

I'm a longtime, enthusiastic fan of the public option. And I am really nervous about its latest rise from the grave. As you may recall, the public option died in December, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dropped it from his reform bill in order to secure the final votes necessary for a filibuster-proof, 60-member majority. It was actually the second or third time it had died, depending on how you count, but this time it seemed dead for good. by OutloudOpinion

The World Without Obama 2.19.10

Ed Kilgore — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:46:25 -0500

If you've been watching the hit TV show "Lost,"then you're familiar with the concept of parallel universes. That is, alternate realities in which history turned out differently, because people made different decisions. It's a useful concept when it comes to thinking about President Obama's current predicament. On a variety of fronts, the Obama administration is suffering from an inability to show Americans the parallel universe in which its past policies were not enacted-and the future that will result if its current proposals bite the dust. by OutloudOpinion

Hearts and Minds 2.18.10

E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:40:21 -0500

WASHINGTON--If you want to be honest, face these facts: At this moment, President Obama is losing, Democrats are losing, and liberals are losing. Who's winning? Republicans, conservatives, the practitioners of obstruction, and the Tea Party. The two immediate causes for this state of affairs are a single election result in Massachusetts, and the way the United States Senate operates. What's not responsible is the supposed failure of Obama and the Democrats to govern as "moderates." by OutloudOpinion

The People’s People 2.18.10

Leon Wieseltier — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:38:15 -0500

I should not speak ill of the dead, but what of the dead who spoke ill of the dead? Many years ago an acquaintance of mine applied for a position at the Museum of the City of New York, over which Louis Auchincloss presided. The search committee met in the writer’s apartment on Park Avenue. When the candidate was asked to describe what he would do to improve the institution, he replied that too many people were not represented in its galleries, and noted in particular the inadequacy of the museum’s portrayal of African Americans. "What would you have us do," Auchincloss sneered, "create a period room with a hovel in it?" I was reminded of that sickening remark when I read Auchincloss’s obituary in the Times a few weeks ago. It was one of those death notices that make me chuckle. How’s this for immortality? by OutloudOpinion

Nowhere Man The vain search for Harold Ford’s principles. 2.17.10

Jonathan Chait — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:08:05 -0500

"Southern voters are interested in solutions,” said Harold Ford Jr. in 2003. “They can spot a fake.” Perhaps this explains Ford’s subsequent decision to decamp from the South in search of a more gullible electorate. Having lost a 2006 Senate race in Tennessee, Ford is now all but officially running in New York. His efforts to date offer a fascinating character study. All politicians, to varying degrees, have pliable beliefs that must bend and twist to mesh with political surroundings that change over time. Ford’s distinguishing trait is that his principles are not merely pliable but completely liquid--they have no form of their own, taking the shape of whatever surrounds them. by OutloudOpinion

Bill Gates Wants A Miracle 2.16.10

Bradford Plumer — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:42:45 -0500

Last Friday, Bill Gates was at the TED Conference in Long Beach and told the audience that climate change was the world's most vexing problem, but that it would take "energy miracles" for the world to zero out its carbon emissions by mid-century. What sorts of miracles? He suggested that we'd need radical new technologies that barely exist right now, like a "traveling wave reactor" that would turn spent uranium into electricity. (Apparently, a company called TerraPower is investigating this possibility.) by OutloudOpinion

Making the Summit Work 2.16.10

John B. Judis — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:42:01 -0500

How can we measure whether President Obama’s health care summit on Feb. 25 is a success? Well, the obvious answer is that it will succeed if Congress passes comprehensive health care reform soon afterwards. But there is an intermediate step that may be necessary. The effect of Obama’s summit has to be to boost the public’s approval of the health care plan that Obama and the Democrats in Congress will be pushing. And it has to show up in opinion polls, because that’s what members of Congress will look at. Is that possible? If you look at the approval ratings for health care reform since mid-summer (when they began to decline), you see that there was one time when they significantly went up: right after Obama’s speech to Congress on health care reform on September 9. The Washington Post/ABC News has asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Obama is handling health care?” On August 13-17, 46 percent approved and 50 percent disapproved, but on September 10-15, and on October 15-18, 48 percent approved and 48 percent disapproved. After that, approval of the health plan began to plummet and is now at 43 to 53 percent. by OutloudOpinion

They Ain’t With Main Street: Where Barack Obama’s sympathies lie. 2.12.10

John B. Judis — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:21:50 -0500

The excerpts that Bloomberg published Wednesday from its interview with Barack Obama provoked some indignation from Simon Johnson, Paul Krugman, and others, but the full interview, published yesterday morning by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, deserves a few additional howls. It shows the degree to which Obama not only doesn’t understand but, on a deeper level, also doesn’t share the outrage many Americans—from left-wing bloggers to right-wing tea-partiers—feel toward the Wall Street CEOs and traders who have made off like bandits during the financial crisis they helped bring about. It’s not the substance of what Obama says—he doesn’t back off on financial regulation or health care reform. It’s his tone, his emphases, and where he allows his sympathies to fall. Let’s start with what Obama says about executive bonuses. The exchange begins: by OutloudOpinion

It's You, Not Me Liberals and libertarians finally break up. 2.12.10

Ed Kilgore — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:21:48 -0500

One mini-saga of the past decade in American politics has been the flirtation—with talk of a deeper partnership—between progressives and libertarians. These two groups were driven together, in the main, by common hostility to huge chunks of the Bush administration's agenda: endless, pointless wars; assaults on civil liberties; cynical vote-buying with federal dollars; and statist panders to the Christian right. by OutloudOpinion

I Read the CEA Report so You Don't Have to 2.12.10

William Galston — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:20:41 -0500

One of the few benefits of being snowed in is the chance to read long documents more carefully than the normal pace of work allows. The 462-page economic report that the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released today is worth the time it takes. On one level, it paints a clear and cogent picture of the path that economic recovery and growth over the next decade will have to take. The principal drivers of growth in the decade prior to 2007—construction and personal consumption—will both lag between now and 2020. Savings and investment will rise, as will net exports. This is more than national accounting arithmetic: Savings had fallen to unsustainably low levels in response to misleading economic cues (more on this a bit later), and investment sagged below trendline for much of the past decade. For their part, exports tend to decline more rapidly than GDP during recessions and to grow more rapidly during recoveries. So the story makes sense, at least qualitatively. by OutloudOpinion

Nice Guys Finish Last: What Obama could learn from Bush about bipartisanship. 2.11.10

Noam Scheiber — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:27:15 -0500

Everyone remembers that George W. Bush’s first tax cut was contentious when Congress considered it back in 2001. So contentious, in fact, that the Bushies didn’t even try passing it under normal Senate procedures. The GOP leadership, worried that it couldn’t collect 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, relied on reconciliation, the Senate rule that allows budget-related measures to pass with a simple majority. What fewer people remember is the margin by which Bush’s tax cut finally passed the Senate. As it happens, the number of yeas was 62—including 12 Democrats. That would qualify as a bipartisan love-fest by contemporary standards. by OutloudOpinion

What The Snowpocalypse Tells Us About Global Warming 2.11.10

Bradford Plumer — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:26:01 -0500

Washington D.C.'s getting slammed by record snowfall right now, which means that in addition to unplowed roads and Mad Max-style scenes at Safeway, we also have to suffer through a flurry of Al Gore jokes and Republicans snorting about how this proves global warming is all fake. I guess the prim, boring response is that a single weather event, even an extreme one, doesn't tell us very much about long-term climate trends. But blah, blah, everyone's heard that line before. A more thoughtful reply comes from meteorologist Jeff Masters, who explains how massive snowstorms in the Northeast are, in fact, quite consistent with a steadily warming world: by OutloudOpinion

Bombs Away: The real reason why Russia and China aren’t interested in stopping Iran’s nuclear program. 2.10.10

Matthew Kroenig — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:04:38 -0500

As President Obama begins a push to impose harsher economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, his success will be determined largely by the answer to a single question: Will China and Russia get on board? In order to bite, sanctions must be enforced by the rest of the international community, but, so far, Beijing and Moscow have been reluctant to endorse the toughest penalties advocated by Washington. Many analysts and policymakers wrongly assume that this reluctance is a function of these countries’ economic ties with Iran, or their failure to appreciate the proliferation threat. Last week, for example, Hillary Clinton bluntly challenged China’s approach to Tehran, saying, “[W]e understand that right now it seems counterproductive to you to sanction a country from which you get so much of the natural resources your growing economy needs. But think about the longer term implications.” The real reason for Beijing and Moscow’s obstinacy, however, is much more fundamental, and from Washington’s point of view, much more distressing: China and Russia are not particularly threatened by, and may even see a significant upside to, a nuclear-armed Iran. by OutloudOpinion

I Pledge Allegiance to the What? 2.10.10

Amanda Silverman — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:52:37 -0500

If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, you may have noticed a welcome interruption to the endless string of Bud Light and Doritos ads. Wedged between these paeans to beer and chips was a seemingly harmless commercial featuring cute elementary schoolers with their hands on the chests, pledging allegiance. But the ad soon turned a little darker: Instead of reciting the words that were drilled into all young children’s minds, they pledged their allegiance to the national debt and to China. In an odd twist, the girl pictured at the end looked conspicuously like Sasha Obama. by OutloudOpinion

What’s Old Is New Again: Just when you thought Iraq was getting better... 2.9.10

Michael Crowley — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 11:54:16 -0500

A few years ago, few places on Earth were as hellish as Iraq’s Anbar Province. Spanning the country’s western desert, Anbar is best known by its major cities, Fallujah and Ramadi, both of which became home bases for al Qaeda-linked terrorists who flooded across Iraq’s border with Syria and joined with Sunni insurgents to carry out bombings, executions, kidnappings, and torture across the country. A dire Marine intelligence report leaked in September 2006 warned that Anbar was lost, with its government institutions “disintegrated or … thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated by al Qaeda in Iraq.” U.S. war planners contemplated withdrawing troops from the province, and giving up on Anbar altogether. by OutloudOpinion

How Republicans Will Kill The Filibuster 2.9.10

Jonathan Chait — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 11:39:28 -0500

The Washington Post has an article today about Democratic efforts to repeal the filibuster. The article is evidence of how far reformers have to go to make headway against elite opinion. The main theme of the article is that majority parties regularly threaten to abolish the filibuster, but later come to their senses when they find themselves in the minority: by OutloudOpinion

The Substitute: Climate change legislation looks dead. Can the EPA handle the job? 2.8.10

Bradford Plumer — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:16:56 -0500

It was always going to be tricky for Congress to pass a big climate-change bill this year. And now, post-Scott Brown, the odds are looking even bleaker. A lot of panicky Dems are blanching at the thought of another knockdown legislative brawl before the midterms, and there's even been talk of a smaller "energy-only" bill that would dish out subsidies for various technologies but wouldn't set hard limits on greenhouse gases. Cap-and-trade still has its backers in the Senate, but picking up 60 votes looks increasingly daunting. by OutloudOpinion

Fairness Doctrine: Yes, let's talk about those Republican ideas for health care. 2.8.10

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:15:10 -0500

The idea that Republicans haven’t had a chance to present their ideas on health care reform is a bit mind-boggling. Five separate congressional committees had hearings; each chamber had floor debates. That’s hundreds of hours the GOP had to talk about health care, all of it in public view and televised on C-SPAN. And that’s not even including all of the unofficial channels at the Republicans’ disposal. Generally speaking, the party of Rush Limbaugh and Fox Television doesn’t struggle to get across its message. by OutloudOpinion

Freedom Agenda 2.5.10

William Galston — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 12:35:33 -0500

Our political debates, our public discourse-on current economic and domestic issues-too often bear little or no relation to the actual problems the United States faces. What is at stake in our economic decisions today is not some grand warfare of rival ideologies which will sweep the country with passion, but the practical management of a modern economy. What we need is not labels and clichés but more basic discussion of the sophisticated and technical questions involved in keeping a great economic machinery moving ahead. by OutloudOpinion

Realignment Revisited 2.5.10

Damon Linker — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 12:31:41 -0500

It’s been nearly a year since I wrote a post titled "What Realignments Look Like." In it I reflected on how disorienting it was to see the Democrats take the White House, increase their margins in the Congress, and confidently pursue a progressive policy agenda. Having politically come of age during Reagan’s presidency, when the Republican critique of liberalism seemed to permeate the political consciousness of the nation, such a thing seemed unthinkable. Through the two decades separating the end of the Reagan era and the election of Barack Obama, I was convinced that the only electorally viable liberalism was a moderate, centrist liberalism. The post-1994 Clinton administration served as a model. by OutloudOpinion

He’s a Yuppie: Why Obama can’t connect with the working class.. 2.4.10

John B. Judis — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 11:14:04 -0500

Here is a fact: Barack Obama has trouble generating enthusiasm among white working class voters. That’s not because they are white. He would have had trouble winning support among black working class voters if they had been unable to identify with him because he was black. He has trouble with working class voters because he appears to them as coming from a different world, a different realm of experience, a different class, if you like. And that’s because he does. by OutloudOpinion

Before Sunset: Obama’s latest problem: Democrats who still love the Bush tax cuts. 2.4.10

Noam Scheiber — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 11:12:44 -0500

One way to judge the health of our political system is to divide the president’s agenda into three categories. First are the items that seem like they’d be hard to accomplish and actually are hard—health care reform and cap-and-trade come to mind. Then come the items that sound easy to the uninitiated but turn out to be pretty hard—like eliminating wasteful farm subsidies or obsolete weapons systems. Lots of presidents have taken on these programs only to find that they have powerful, well-organized defenders. Finally, there are some legislative goals that sound easy to accomplish, and normally are easy, until some unique brand of dysfunction intervenes—say, some senator takes a special interest in an obscure appointment. by OutloudOpinion

Green Energy: Have the leaders of the Green Movement really sold out? 2.3.10

Abbas Milani — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:24:05 -0500

Is the Green Movement finished? That is what the Iranian government wants the world to believe. And it has recently been trumpeting a few pieces of evidence to make its case. First came a statement by Mir Hossein Mousavi on New Year’s Eve, which offered five conditions for ending the current impasse. But because it did not directly repeat Mousavi’s oft-quoted notion that the June elections were rigged, Kayhan and Rajanews—the two news outlets closest to Khamenei and Ahmadinejad—tried to claim the statement as a major victory for the regime. by OutloudOpinion

How the Democratic Base Could Explode 2.3.10

Jonathan Chait — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:22:35 -0500

Since House Democrats remain fairly seized with terror at the political ramifications of passing health care reform, it's worth stepping back and thinking clearly about the Democrats' predicament. The November elections look bad for three basic reasons. First, the Republican base is extremely energized, for reasons that were probably inevitable due to Democrats running all three branches of government, in an era when Republicans have very effective communication media for whipping up their base. Second, independents are highly skeptical, which was also mostly inevitable when the party took power just after the economy began a free-fall. by OutloudOpinion

Advertorial Malfunction: Oh, for the simpler days of nip slips. 2.2.10

Michelle Cottle — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 14:02:28 -0500

God, I miss the good old days of the Super Bowl, when the hottest controversy was the post-game hand-wringing over how to spank CBS for subjecting America to Janet Jackson’s right boob. This year, the game-related hullabaloo centers not on the halftime spectacle but on the ads—specifically, a pro-life spot featuring the curious case of 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. As the story goes, Pam and Bob Tebow were serving as Baptist missionaries in the Philippines when Pam was pregnant with Tim, their fifth child. Early in the pregnancy, Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, requiring treatment with hard-core meds that threatened not only to damage the fetus but also cause complications that could endanger her life. Citing such risks, her doctor recommended abortion. Pam refused, and the resulting progeny is the stuff of which football legends and high-octane anti-abortion ads are made. by OutloudOpinion

A Riot in Calabria: Mafia versus Africans. 2.2.10

Alexander Stille — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 14:00:58 -0500

Images of African immigrants rioting in the streets of a small southern Italian city, throwing rocks, blocking roads, and breaking store and car windows, briefly exposed a shocking reality: the existence of Italy’s growing migrant-labor population, mostly Africans, an estimated 20,000 of them working under inhuman conditions, living in abandoned buildings or improvised structures without heat or working toilets, sleeping four (even five) to a mattress while laboring off the books for about $30 a day. Early January’s revolt was sparked by an incident in which a couple of local residents from around the town of Rosarno, Calabria, drove by a migrant encampment and shot an African worker with a pellet gun, as if for sport, laughed, and drove away. “We are not animals,” many of the immigrants told reporters, explaining the explosion of longfestering anger that this episode triggered. Vigilante groups retaliated against the migrant rioters, firing further rounds of pellets. Some in the press compared the community defense groups to the Ku Klux Klan, while Italy’s interior minister attributed the violence to “too much tolerance” of illegal immigration. by OutloudOpinion

At the Two-Yard Line 2.1.10

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 1 Feb 2010 10:47:51 -0500

In the days immediately after the special Massachusetts election, which gave Senate Republicans the ability to block votes on legislation, the prospects for reform looked so bleak that one reliable source emailed me a one-word message: “Dead.” But within 24 hours, that same source had emailed me another one-word message: “Alive.” And that’s a pretty good description of where things stand today, at least based on what I've gleaned from conversations with insiders over the last week. by OutloudOpinion

Unsentimental Education: What has Obama learned about peace? 1.29.10

Marty Peretz — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:01:08 -0500

An interview by Joe Klein in Time magazine is hardly a historical event. But, when the interview is with Barack Obama, it lays claim to some newsworthiness. This is especially true when it is ballyhooed as a firstanniversary event. Since, moreover, (right after awarding himself good grades on Al Qaeda in Yemen and Somalia) it’s clear that Obama wanted to make a point: “The other area which I think is worth noting is that the Middle East peace process has not moved forward. And I think it’s fair to say that for all our efforts at early engagement, it is not where I want it to be.” by OutloudOpinion

While Obama Speechified, His Political Predicament Got Worse 1.29.10

William Galston — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:00:08 -0500

In his State of the Union address, President Obama executed his well-advertised double pivot toward job generation and fiscal restraint. Almost lost in the pundits' babble was the release of a CBO report, “The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2010 to 2020,” coupled with CBO director Doug Elmendorf’s testimony to the House and Senate budget committees. CBO’s analysis makes it clear just how daunting the employment and fiscal challenges are over the next decade . . . and how perilous the political terrain will be for the Democratic Party. by OutloudOpinion

Obama's Dull, Cheap, Successful Speech 1.28.10

Jonathan Chait — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:39:28 -0500

President Obama’s speeches have always been notable for both their exquisite prose and their unusually high intellectual level. Tonight’s speech, while probably as effective as such speeches can be, was neither. The dropoff between rhetoric penned by Obama and that by his staff, always noticeable, was especially so tonight. When he declared, “health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo,” I wondered if his budget freeze had already claimed the entire White House speechwriting staff. by OutloudOpinion

The PC Officially Died Today But will the iPad replace it? 1.27.10

Nicholas Carr — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:37:48 -0500

The PC era ended this morning at ten o’clock Pacific time, when Steve Jobs stepped onto a San Francisco stage to unveil the iPad, Apple’s version of a tablet computer. Tablets have been kicking around for a decade, but consumers have always shunned them. And for good reason: They’ve been nerdy-looking smudge-magnets, limited by their cumbersome shape and their lack of a keyboard. Tablets were a solution to a problem no one had. The rapturous reaction to Apple’s tablet—the buildup to Jobs’s announcement blurred the line between media feeding-frenzy and orgiastic pagan ritual—shows that our attitude to the tablet form has finally changed. Tablets suddenly look attractive. Why? Because the nature of personal computing has changed. by OutloudOpinion

Is Obama Really Breaking up the Banks? 1.27.10

Noam Scheiber — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:41:50 -0500

Judging from all the build-up, the one thing tonight’s State of the Union address is sure to include is some presidential feistiness toward Wall Street. Rhetorically, the president has spent the last week throwing elbows at his banker adversaries. Obama announced at a press conference last Thursday that "If these folks want a fight, it’s a fight I’m ready to have." The day before, he seemed ready to initiate the beat-down whether or not Wall Street wanted any part of it. "We’re about to get into a big fight with the banks," he warned George Stephanopoulos. During a speech on Friday, Obama used some form of the word "fight" 14 times. "I can promise you, there will be more fights in the days ahead," he said when turning to the topic of banks. by OutloudOpinion

Obama in the Balance 1.27.10

The Editors of TNR — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:16:20 -0500

How does this president handle a crisis? Thus far, the answer is not at all encouraging. The current crisis is the election in Massachusetts of Scott Brown, now the forty-first Republican senator. His arrival in Washington has sent Democrats into panic mode--fearful that they too will be swallowed by a seething electorate--and caused many of them to flee in the other direction from health care reform. In short, Barack Obama faces a moment where his presidency just might collapse or, rather, risks heading into a wilderness where it would accomplish next to none of its ambitious goals. by OutloudOpinion

Republicans Aren’t Sitting as Pretty as They Think 1.26.10

Ed Kilgore — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:30:11 -0500

Most of the analysis of the impact of Scott Brown’s upset victory in Massachusetts has naturally revolved around the Democratic Party. Having lost the "Kennedy seat," in the bluest of blue states, with health care reform legislation (and the ability to overcome Republican filibusters on other legislation) in extreme peril, and already facing a very difficult midterm election environment, what can the Donkey Party and its leaders do to mitigate the damage? Will they pull together or scatter to the four winds? Will vulnerable House members retire, making a Republican takeover in November that much more likely? And is the president in a political freefall that could make him effectively a lame duck between now and the end of 2011, and a sitting duck in his re-election year? These are all reasonable questions, but it’s also worth asking whether Republicans may be in danger of over-interpreting the Brown win, and refusing to deal with some of their own political problems. by OutloudOpinion

Gates: "Innovation, Not Insulation" 1.26.10

Mark Muro — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:28:00 -0500

So now Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire, has weighed in, capping a week in which Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Energy Secretary Steven Chu did, too. Their timely warning: Congress--and the nation--are stiffing energy innovation research and need to get serious as the year’s budget struggles near. Gates’ remarks are the most noteworthy--and pointed. Writing on his personal blog under the title "Why We Need Innovation, Not Insulation," Gates says energy innovation has been on his mind lately, and he has posted an angular, politically incorrect complaint about the extent to which the country is missing the point on the appropriate goals and means for carbon reduction. by OutloudOpinion

Obama Wants Reform. Is He Fighting for It? 1.25.10

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:44:16 -0500

Health care reform may not be finished after all. Despite the political reverberations of last week’s special election in Massachusetts, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are still discussing ways of passing a comprehensive reform bill. But it’s going to take heroic political efforts, given the number of Democrats suddenly skittish about supporting such a bill. And it’s not clear whether the Hill’s strongest reform advocates are getting the kind of political help they say they need from the White House. by OutloudOpinion

Did "African American" History Really Happen in Atlanta, Cleveland, Philly, and Detroit? Listening to the Census. 1.25.10

John McWhorter — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:42:06 -0500

The figures from the American Community Survey just in are more than crunched numbers. They suggest that this might be a good year for a certain term now familiar in American parlance to be, if not consigned to history, reassigned. Namely, as of now, almost 1 in 10 black people are foreign-born. About 1 in 30 are from Africa. Which means that they are--you see where I’m going--African American in the true sense. Certainly a truer sense--true as in making sense--than Tracy Morgan, Donna Brazile, Jesse Jackson, or Mo’Nique. by OutloudOpinion

Where's the Obama I Voted For? 1.21.10

Jonathan Cohn — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:50:59 -0500

If you’ve been a Democrat for more than two or three years, disappointment with your leaders is something that comes rather naturally. From the 1970s until well into the previous decade, the party produced presidents and presidential candidates like Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, and John Kerry. These men weren’t lovable losers. They were just losers. Even the lone winner among them--Bill Clinton--famously and infamously found ways to disappoint. But then Barack Obama came along. And for the first time, at least in my memory, Democrats had a leader who consistently outsmarted not just his opponents but his supporters as well. Over and over again in the 2008 campaign, those of us rooting for him would panic over his strategy. Over and over again, Obama proved us wrong. He had an uncanny ability to block out the noise and confound Beltway perceptions, to ignore the ups and downs of the news cycle in order to pursue broader goals. Even for me, somebody who generally resisted the Obama kool-aid, it was something to behold. by OutloudOpinion

Did Scott Brown Kill Off Any Hope Of Tackling Climate Change? 1.21.10

Bradford Plumer — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:48:53 -0500

After Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts, everyone's been pondering the fate of health care reform. But to gaze even further ahead, where does this leave climate and energy legislation? Is that just going to get scrapped? Or could it still survive in some form? The optimistic take comes from Harry Reid, who told the Senate earlier this morning that he still plans to push the issue: "We will tackle our daunting energy and climate challenges, and by doing so will strengthen our national security, our environment and our economy." Republican Lindsey Graham, who's helping craft Senate legislation, also sounds undeterred: "If people think that [Brown] got elected and the message to us was 'don’t do anything on pollution or energy independence,' that’s absurd." by OutloudOpinion

Dear Nervous & Frustrated House Democrat... 1.20.10

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:41:34 -0500

Dear Nervous and Frustrated House Democrat, It’s up to you. A few days ago, after a year of debate, you were on the verge of achieving a goal that’s eluded progressives for nearly a century: Creating a national health insurance program. But now the whole effort could fall apart. When Scott Brown takes his seat in the U.S. Senate, the Republicans will have 41 members in their caucus--enough to stop passage of any bill if they stay united. They’ve promised to do just that when and if they get to vote on the final version of health care reform--the one that recent House-Senate negotiations produced. You’re depressed: Brown inherits the seat that once belonged to Ted Kennedy, who had made health care reform a lifelong crusade. by OutloudOpinion

Why Health Care is the Graveyard of Democratic Dreams 1.20.10

Thomas B. Edsall — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:40:07 -0500

The victory of Scott Brown in the fight for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat shines a light on a trend in American politics that ought to deeply trouble progressives. When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he decisively demonstrated that he was not bound by Democratic orthodoxy. He called for merit pay, expanding charter schools, and firing incompetent teachers. He supported President Bush’s faith-based initiatives providing federal money to religious charities. He endorsed the Supreme Court's decision overturning a handgun ban in the nation’s capital, while faulting the Court’s opposition to the death penalty for child rape. by OutloudOpinion

Everything You Need to Know About the Reconciliation Process 1.20.10

Jeff Davis — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:39:00 -0500

The potential loss of a 60th vote in the Senate for health care reform has many in Washington focusing on the budget reconciliation process, which requires only 51 votes in that chamber. Since a reconciliation bill must contain provisions that have “budgetary impacts,” many of the regulatory and consumer protections in the House and Senate health bills would not qualify, so the idea now gaining traction would be for the House to accept the Senate health care bill as is, pass it without change, and then try to implement as many of the compromises now under discussion as possible in a subsequent reconciliation bill. by OutloudOpinion

The Disaster Pool: How would I describe the Haiti coverage? Redundant. 1.19.10

Noam Scheiber — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:12:56 -0500

Anderson Cooper was one of the first reporters to arrive in Haiti after last week’s massive earthquake. According to a Los Angeles Times account, the CNN personality raced to the airport upon hearing the news and caught the last flight out of New York. Unfortunately, the flight he caught deposited him in the Dominican Republic, not Haiti. That forced him to catch a lift the following morning on a government helicopter, which nearly collided with a plane in the congested skies above Port-au-Prince. by OutloudOpinion

Brown Makes the Political Case for Reform 1.19.10

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:10:10 -0500

Scott Brown is running on a promise to block the health care bill in Washington. But, as you may have heard, he is not running on a promise to roll back the reforms that Massachusetts implemented three years ago. In fact, he says he supports those reforms. I had been planning to something about how this proves Brown is an empty suit, as far as substance goes. Remember, the basic architecture of the coverage scheme in Massachusetts is virtually identical to what we'd do nationally if the bills before Congress pass. The big difference--and, yes, it's a big difference--is that the Massachusetts plan didn't really try to control costs, as the national reforms would. by OutloudOpinion

Hot Seat: The Democrats are doomed. What better time to tackle climate change? 1.18.10

The Editors of The New Republic — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:11:22 -0500

Democrats in Congress have a lot to juggle in the year ahead. If they want to avoid a slaughter at the polls, they’ll need to boost job growth. Not only that, but Wall Street remains poorly regulated, and key allies are growing impatient for labor-law and immigration reform. So it’s hardly a shock to hear that some Dems would prefer to set aside tackling climate change--especially so soon after a grueling health care fight. “We need to deal with the phenomena of global warming,” Indiana Senator Evan Bayh recently groused, “but I think it’s very difficult in the economic circumstances we have right now.” by OutloudOpinion

How to Pass the Bill--Whatever Happens Tuesday 1.18.10

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:10:24 -0500

After a weekend of interviews with Democratic staff, officials, and operatives, I've come to the conclusion that health care reform is not dead even if Martha Coakley loses on Tuesday--unless, that is, the Democrats let it die. On Friday, my colleague Jonathan Chait outlined the options if Scott Brown wins the special election in Massachusetts, giving the Republicans enough votes to sustain a filibuster. One would be to approach Olympia Snowe, the lone Republican who voted for health care reform when it was before the Senate Finance Committee and who, at one point, seemed interested in voting for it on the floor. by OutloudOpinion

The Uneasy Marriage Between Tea Partiers and the GOP 1.15.10

Ed Kilgore — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:22:49 -0500

Recent polls show their movement is thought of more favorably by Americans than either the Democratic or Republican Parties. Political independents are said to be attracted more each day. Progressive dissenters against the “pro-corporate” policies of the Obama administration pine for alliances with them. But at the same time, Republican politicians constantly ape their rhetoric and seek to deploy them against their Democratic, and sometimes intraparty, enemies. by OutloudOpinion

Are We Ready For The Rising Seas? 1.15.10

Tom Laskawy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:21:53 -0500

Pacific and Indian Ocean atoll nations are already being abandoned because of the direct and indirect effects of sea level rise, such as saltwater intrusion into groundwater. In the Marshall Islands, some crops are being grown in abandoned 55-gallon oil drums because the ground is now too salty for planting. New Zealand is accepting, on a gradual basis, all of the inhabitants of the Tuvalu atolls. Inhabitants of Carteret Atoll have all moved to Papua, New Guinea. by OutloudOpinion

Google’s reasons for leaving China aren’t as pure as they seem. 1.14.10

Nicolas Carr — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:28:49 -0500

Google is being widely hailed for its announcement yesterday that it will stop censoring its search results in China, even if it means having to abandon that vast market. After years of compromising its own ideals on the free flow of information, the company is at last, it seems, putting its principles ahead of its business interests. But Google’s motivations are not as pure as they may seem. While there's almost certainly an ethical component to the company’s decision—Google and its founders have agonized in a very public way over their complicity in Chinese censorship—yesterday’s decision seems to have been spurred more by hard business calculations than soft moral ones. by OutloudOpinion

Anthony Kennedy’s Decisions Don’t Make Sense. They Never Will. 1.14.10

Eric A. Posner — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:26:04 -0500

Justice Anthony Kennedy has power, but he lacks respect. Situated at the ideological midpoint of the Supreme Court, he chooses the outcome when his eight colleagues are evenly divided. He has made his mark in important cases that, among other things, preserved the right to abortion, limited the death penalty, and expanded free speech. But legal commentators complain that he lacks a consistent jurisprudence. He talks a great game about constitutional principles, but tacks to the political winds or votes his ideological fancy. by OutloudOpinion

The Greening of Islam: How the Iranian uprising has transformed Shiism. 1.13.10

Abbas Milani — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:49:33 -0500

The Green Movement is a revolt against theocracy. Most of its adherents are young Iranians with little or no religious motivation. Yet, an iconic figure of the revolt was the nation’s highest-ranking cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri; and, last month, Ashura, a holy day celebrating martyrdom, occasioned some of the movement’s most massive protests. by OutloudOpinion

A New Vision for Schools: Good! No Way to Implement That Vision: Bad! 1.13.10

Seyward Darby — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:48:36 -0500

It's been a good week for Randi Weingarten. In a speech Tuesday morning at the National Press Club, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) voiced support for some major education reforms--most notably, tying students' test scores to teacher evaluations and making it easier to fire bad teachers. And the speech is already garnering a lot of positive buzz: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who stopped by the event, praised her for "showing courage," and New York Times columnist Bob Herbert said that her proposals, if implemented, would "represent a significant, good-faith effort [for teachers' unions] to cooperate more fully with state officials and school administrators in the monumental job of improving public school education." by OutloudOpinion

Transparency and Sausage Making: Taking a stick to the GOP’s ‘transparency’ crusade. 1.12.10

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:42:35 -0500

When the Democrats announced that they would be forgoing conference committee proceedings and negotiating a final health care reform bill informally, critics pounced on President Barack Obama for violating his promise of greater transparency in government. And I, for one, had no great urge to defend him. As a presidential candidate, Obama had not merely promised to introduce more transparency to government. He had very specifically, and very repeatedly, promised to conduct deliberations over health care “in front of the cameras on C-SPAN.” Although I never took the pledge literally--clearly, you can’t negotiate an entire bill in public view--plenty of voters did. Now Obama was paying a political price for the boast. I figured it was punishment for rhetorical hubris. by OutloudOpinion

It's Time for a Supertax on Big Bank Bonuses 1.12.10

Simon Johnson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:41:41 -0500

The big banks are pre-testing their main messages for bonus season, which starts in earnest next week. Their payouts relative to profits will be “record lows,” their people won’t make as much as in 2007 (except for Goldman), and they will pay a higher proportion of the bonus in stock than usual. Behind the scenes, leading executives are still arguing out the details of the optics. As they justify their pay packages, the bankers open up a broader relevant question: How much bonus do they deserve in this situation? After all, bonus time is when you decide who made what kind of relative contribution to your bottom line--and you are able to recognize unusually strong achievement. by OutloudOpinion

Gullible Gambari: Next stop for the UN envoy who royally screwed up in Burma? Sudan. 1.11.10

Seyward Darby — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:57:28 -0500

On May 20, 2006, Ibrahim Gambari, the gregarious UN under-secretary general for political affairs, met with leaders of Burma’s military junta and their most famous political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. It was Gambari’s first trip to Burma, and the first time in two years that the country’s secretive rulers had granted a UN official such high-level access. Gambari’s optimism was palpable: “They want to open up another chapter of relationship with the international community,” the seasoned Nigerian diplomat said in a press conference on May 24. But three days later, only a week after meeting with Gambari, the junta extended Suu Kyi’s house arrest by a year. Suddenly, Gambari’s optimism was his humiliation. “People thought he had fallen for their line,” says Mark Farmaner, director of Campaign for Burma UK. “He was completely suckered.” by OutloudOpinion

The Hurt Locker: Gilbert Arenas may be a moron, but his critics are downright insufferable. 1.11.10

Noam Scheiber — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:56:36 -0500

If you don't follow the NBA, the name Stephen Jackson might not immediately ring a bell. Allow me to reacquaint you. Jackson was the kindly Samaritan who followed his then-Indiana Pacers teammate Ron Artest into the stands to slap some fans around during a 2004 brawl with the Detroit Pistons. For this Jackson received a 30-game suspension. It turned out to be such a life-altering experience that Jackson would never again use his hands as a weapon in public. Not even close. The next time Jackson chose to disturb the peace, he would brandish a bona fide weapon--a 9 mm pistol. Two years later, Jackson was charged with a felony for firing the gun outside an Indianapolis strip club. by OutloudOpinion

The Washington Couple out to Destroy the Green Movement 1.8.10

Abbas Milani — Fri, 8 Jan 2010 10:44:51 -0500

A couple of days after June’s stolen election in Iran, Flynt Leverett and I were both guests on “The Charlie Rose Show.” Mr. Leverett was waxing eloquent about how Ahmadinejad could have actually won the election. His supposed evidence was a May poll, conducted by phone from Turkey, before the presidential campaign had even begun. Apparently he did not read the entire report of the poll, merely a summary, published in a Washington Post editorial. Much of the full report contradicted his conclusions. Moreover, anyone who believes that Iranians today will reveal their real electoral preferences to a pollster calling from Turkey probably responds to emails from Nigerian princes. by OutloudOpinion

Look, Intelligence Failures Are Neither Democratic Nor Republican. Alas, They Are Both Non-Partisan and Bi-Partisan. 1.8.10

Marty Peretz — Fri, 8 Jan 2010 10:43:58 -0500

I have made my own criticisms of President Obama and his administration's perspectives on the etiology of terrorism in the world. And the truth is that it is not yet clear in the president's head--or he is not yet being candid (which is my substitute for "frank" and "honest")--that you can't have a true view of routine mass murder in the contemporary world without having quite a harsh view of Islam today. It is unfair to the American people and to the peoples of the liberal world for the administration to pretend that the perpetrators of terror are not animated by some all-consuming ideology. It is not an abstraction that animates them. It is not a game of hide-and-seek with the CIA. by OutloudOpinion

Pelosi Knows How to Fix the Health Care Bill. Will the Senate Listen? 1.7.10

Jonathan Cohn — Thu, 7 Jan 2010 11:37:50 -0500

If there’s one area in which the House health care reform bill is obviously superior to the Senate version, it’s coverage and affordability. There’s more financial assistance for buying insurance and much stronger protection against out-of-pocket medical costs. That means more people getting coverage and fewer people struggling with expenses. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies, both on and off Capitol Hill, have made clear this is one of their top priorities for the coming negotiations over how to merge the two pieces of legislation. And it would seem, at first blush, like one of the rare points on which the House might actually get its way. by OutloudOpinion

The Butt Bomb: Al Qaeda's hidden weapon. 1.7.10

Michael Crowley — Thu, 7 Jan 2010 10:29:11 -0500

In the wake of the failed bombing attempt by Nigerian Al Qaeda operative Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, airport security experts are wringing their hands over how to stop the next underwear bomber. X-ray machines don’t detect the type of explosive, known as PETN, that Abdulmutallab carried. Only a careful pat-down around Abdulmutallab’s crotch, where the explosive had been sewn into his undies, would have detected his deadly cargo. But Abdulmutallab’s al Qaeda handlers knew that pat-downs are rare and that social mores make highly intrusive, crotch-fondling searches almost unheard of. In the wake of the Abdulmutallab episode, however, standards will change. Pat downs will become more common—and more intrusive. We may not see the famous vision of the crazed dictator from Woody Allen’s Bananas—“Underwear shall be worn on the outside!”—but those searches by hand are likely to get a little more, shall we say, intimate. by OutloudOpinion

Is Obama's Agenda Killing the Economy? 1.6.10

Noam Scheiber — Wed, 6 Jan 2010 10:08:39 -0500

My favorite moment from last month’s White House jobs summit came when the president asked if Washington had been doing something to discourage hiring. At this point, a man named Fred Lampropoulos, the CEO of a Utah-based medical device manufacturer, chimed in that yes, in fact, it had. “[T]here’s such an aggressive legislative agenda that businesspeople don’t really know what they ought to do,” Mr. Lampropoulos told the president, according to The New York Times. Political uncertainty, he said, “is really what’s holding back the jobs.” by OutloudOpinion

Why Cap-and-Trade Ain’t Dead Yet 1.6.10

Bradford Plumer — Wed, 6 Jan 2010 10:07:39 -0500

Seems like the conventional wisdom in Washington right now is that there's no way the Senate passes a climate bill in 2010—especially after that long, gory health care battle we just saw. Here's The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza: "No matter what Obama and his advisers said… there is now no chance that the Administration's climate-change proposal will come up for a vote in the Senate prior to the 2010 election. Politicians never like casting controversial votes, but they like doing so even less in an election year." by OutloudOpinion

How the health care bill could make doctors richer and help the poor. 1.5.10

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 5 Jan 2010 11:14:28 -0500

Over the next few weeks, as the House and Senate forge a compromise between their respective health care reform bills, most of the attention will be on the high-profile issues like abortion and taxes. But there are myriad other issues that, although less visible to the public, could go a long way towards determining the success of health care reform--and the health care system more generally. High on this list is the seemingly technical question of what Medicaid pays primary care physicians. by OutloudOpinion

Why Is Campbell Soup Interested In Cap-And-Trade? 1.5.10

Bradford Plumer — Tue, 5 Jan 2010 11:48:44 -0500

There are so many different companies trying to influence the shape of climate policy in Washington that it's hard to get a sense for the sheer scale involved. According to the Center for Public Integrity's latest tally, there are now 1,160 businesses and groups wrangling over the issue—and they've hired a whopping 2,780 climate lobbyists. An even better sign of the frenzy is the fact that companies you'd never expect to care about the arcane details of cap-and-trade are now taking a keen interest. Like Campbell Soup and Kellogg: by OutloudOpinion

Is Counterinsurgency Entirely Too Popular? 1.4.10

Michael Crowley — Mon, 4 Jan 2010 17:56:00 -0500

On a February morning in 2006, as Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, was jolted awake by the calls to prayer from the city’s mosques, 23 Yemeni prisoners On the night of December 1, shortly after Barack Obama announced plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, retired Lt. Colonel John Nagl appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Maddow was dismayed by Obama’s new plan, which she called “massive escalation,” but, when she introduced Nagl, a counterinsurgency expert who has long called for a greater U.S. commitment to Afghanistan--even if it means raising taxes and expanding the military--she was surprisingly friendly. And, after Nagl spent the segment praising Obama’s plan, which he said would throw back the Taliban and enable more civil and economic development, Maddow may have remained skeptical--but she was also admiring. “It’s a real pleasure to have you on the show, John,” she said. by OutloudOpinion

What You Need to Know About Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula 1.4.10

Michelle Shephard — Mon, 4 Jan 2010 17:54:44 -0500

On a February morning in 2006, as Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, was jolted awake by the calls to prayer from the city’s mosques, 23 Yemeni prisoners crawled their way to freedom. They had spent weeks patiently digging a 140-foot tunnel that would extend from their basement prison cell to a nearby mosque. Among the escapees were Jamal al-Badawi, the alleged mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors, and Jaber al-Banna, a Yemeni with U.S. citizenship who was counted among the FBI’s 26 most wanted. by OutloudOpinion

Good News From Detroit 12.23.09

Jennifer Bradley — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:52:05 -0500

Today’s New York Times brings some unexpected but welcome news from Detroit: newly elected city council members are talking about the urgency of regional action. "We need a higher standard of ethics and transparency and competence and cooperation, not just with each other but with our region and our state," says Charles Pugh, city council president-elect. by OutloudOpinion

Screw Job 12.23.09

Jonathan Chait — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:53:50 -0500

President Obama is like a pilot who took the controls of the plane in mid-flight after the engines fell out. It’s obvious that he didn’t cause the problem. But the passengers are going to focus on the fact that the plane was still airborne before he took over, and now, he’s crash-landing in the ocean. by OutloudOpinion

Against the Green 12.23.09

Nader Mousavizadeh — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:51:24 -0500

As President Obama arrives empty-handed at the end of his year-long attempt to persuade Iran to address the international community’s concerns about its nuclear program, a curious paradox has emerged. Even if intensified--and highly costly--sanctions were to force the regime to comply with Western demands, an agreement between Tehran and Washington would benefit one party above all: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the illegitimate government that he now leads. by OutloudOpinion

Conservative Crocodile Tears About "Corporatism" 12.22.09

Ed Kilgore — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:16:31 -0500

TNR published a piece I did the other day examining the ideological underpinnings of the left/center split in the Democratic Party over the propriety of a universal health care system based on regulated and subsidized private health insurers. I suggested there was a burgeoning, if questionably workable, tactical alliance between "social-democratic" progressives and some conservatives to derail much of the Obama overall agenda. by OutloudOpinion

Recognizing Reform 12.22.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:14:17 -0500

Health care reform looks like it’s finally ready to pass the Senate, now that the Democrats have 60 votes in hand. But here on the left, not all of us are jumping for joy. Some think the Senate bill is just barely better than nothing. Others think it’s worse than even that. by OutloudOpinion

Did Obama Really Sidestep The U.N. At Copenhagen? 12.22.09

Bradford Plumer — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:11:41 -0500

Analysts are still mulling over the Copenhagen accord, trying to figure out what it means for the fate of global climate politics. The humdrum answer is that it all depends - we'll have to see how individual nations tackle their CO2 emissions in the months and years ahead, and then watch how the next round of international talks shake out. But if it's specifics you want, check out Harvard economist Robert Stavin's analysis. by OutloudOpinion

Round Two 12.21.09

E.J. Dionne Jr. — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:41:16 -0500

WASHINGTON--For progressives, the question on the health care battle going forward is not whether they have a right to be angry but whether they can direct their fury toward constructive ends. The alternative is to pursue a temporarily satisfying and ultimately self-defeating politics of protest. Of course what has happened on the health care bill is enraging. It's quite clear that substantial majorities in both houses of Congress favored either a public option or a Medicare buy-in. by OutloudOpinion

Why I Still Believe in This Bill 12.21.09

Jacob S. Hacker — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:38:56 -0500

Now that the core demand of progressives has been removed from the Senate health care bill--namely, the public health insurance option--should progressives continue to support the effort? For me, the question is particularly difficult. I have been the thinker most associated with the public option, which I’ve long argued is essential to ensuring accountability from private insurers and long-term cost control. I was devastated when it was killed at the hands of Senator Joe Lieberman, not least because of what it said about our democracy -- that a policy consistently supported by a strong majority of Americans could be brought down by a recalcitrant Senate minority. by OutloudOpinion

Mourning Montazeri 12.21.09

Abbas Milani — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:36:31 -0500

Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri, the highest ranking Shiite cleric in Iran and a leading voice of dissent for more than two decades, died Saturday of what his family said was a lingering heart ailment. His memorial is shaping up as yet another occasion for the Iranian people to show their resentment of the current regime. Thousands of people are traveling to Qom, where he lived and died, to attend the funeral. The opposition has announced a day of national mourning. Montazeri lived a remarkable life, a man willing to forgo the temptations of power if the price is overlooking or keeping silent about breaches of basic human values. by OutloudOpinion

The Republican Health Care Blunder 12.21.09

Jonathan Chait — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:33:51 -0500

The United States is on the doorstep of comprehensive health care reform. It's a staggering achievement, about which I'll have more to say later. but the under-appreciated thing that strikes me at the moment is that it never would have happened if the Republican Party had played its cards right. At the outset of this debate, moderate Democrats were desperate for a bipartisan bill. They were willing to do almost anything to get it, including negotiate fruitlessly for months on end. We can't know for sure, but Democrats appeared willing to make enormous substantive concessions to win the assent of even a few Republicans. A few GOP defectors could have lured a chunk of Democrats to sign something far more limited than what President Obama is going to sign. And remember, it would have taken only one Democrat to agree to partial reform in order to kill comprehensive reform. I can easily imagine a scenario where Ben Nelson refused to vote for anything larger than, say, a $400 billion bill that Chuck Grassley and a couple other Republicans were offering. by OutloudOpinion

How Democrats Can Get Themselves Back in Shape 12.17.09

William Galston — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:46:15 -0500

When the history of the Obama administration is written, this week may well be regarded as the moment when Democrats’ anxieties crystallized into genuine alarm. Factional fights within the party exploded into public view. Howard Dean—regarded by many progressives as a leader on health reform—denounced the Senate bill, declaring that it “would do more harm than good to the future of America.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made it clear that the Obama administration would be left on its own to make the case for its Afghanistan policy; odds are that a large number of House Democrats—perhaps even a majority—will oppose funding it. Thirty-eight House Democrats, many facing tough races, joined forces with the Republicans to turn the vote on a new jobs bill into a cliff-hanger that forced the Speaker to spend an hour on the House floor personally lobbying wavering members. Even E. J. Dionne Jr., an ardent liberal and congenital optimist, worried publicly that while “[a]n increasingly bitter and negative Republican Party may not be able to win the midterm elections … Democrats definitely can lose them.” The reason: Democrats’ “turmoil and backstabbing are making what is a rather good [health care] plan look like a failure while persuading political independents that they are a feuding gang rather than a governing party.” by OutloudOpinion

The Left Is Playing With Fire 12.17.09

Jonathan Cohn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:29:30 -0500

Liberals frustrated with the decision to drop a public option are now attacking a core principle of health care reform: the individual mandate. Greg Sargent and Ben Smith quote Jim Dean, brother of Howard, in an e-mail that just went out to Democracy for America: Senate leaders are all over Washington claiming they finally have a healthcare reform bill they can pass, as long as they remove the public option. After all, they say that even without a public option, the bill still "covers" 30 million more Americans. What they are actually talking about is something called the "individual mandate." That's a section of the law that requires every single American buy health insurance or break the law and face penalties and fines. So, the bill doesn't actually "cover" 30 million more Americans--instead it makes them criminals if they don't buy insurance from the same companies that got us into this mess. by OutloudOpinion

The EPA's Coming Carbon Regulations: A Quick Primer 12.17.09

Bradford Plumer — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:28:34 -0500

Yesterday, the EPA formally published its finding that greenhouse gases pose a danger to public health. It's printed in the Federal Register and everything. So now that that's finished, what comes next? When do the new CO2 regulations hit? Here's a quick primer on what to expect. First things first: In March of next year, the EPA will work with the Department of Transportation to move forward on its long-planned tailpipe standards for cars and trucks—basically just a fancy way of saying stricter fuel-economy rules are on their way (the plan is an average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016). by OutloudOpinion

An Unexceptional Nation 12.16.09

Damon Linker — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:13:54 -0500

Neocons have begun to warm to Barack Obama’s foreign policy vision. What they’ve liked about his recent speeches (at West Point, but far more so in Oslo) is his willingness to defend (against the anti-political pacifism that dominates a segment of elite European opinion) the idea that there can be morally justified wars—and that the war in Afghanistan is one of them. I’m delighted that some on the American right have come around to supporting the president, but they should do so knowing that on one crucially important matter Obama will never satisfy them. That is the issue of American exceptionalism. by OutloudOpinion

On Lieberman and His Critics 12.16.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:06:20 -0500

Charles Lane was my boss for two years and has been my friend ever since. Ezra Klein is also my friend, not to mention a writer whose work I follow closely. I admire and have learned from both, so it is with some trepidation I weigh into a debate they had in the online pages of the Washington Post over the last few days. The subject of the debate was Joe Lieberman and his demand that Senate Democrats drop a proposal that would allow some workers over 55 to buy coverage through Medicare. The proposal was the latest attempt to forge a compromise between those senators who wanted to include a public insurance option and those who did not. It was the result of negotiations among ten members, representing both sides of that debate, and by last week the ten seemed to have agreed upon it in principle. But Lieberman refused to go along. If Democrats wanted his vote on health care reform, he said, they’d have to meet his demand that the bill include no public option whatsoever. A compromise good enough for at least five like-minded colleagues was, it seems, not good enough for him. by OutloudOpinion

Is $500 Billion In Foreign Aid Possible? (Maybe...) 12.14.09

Bradford Plumer — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:17:12 -0500

This week, National Journal is hosting a useful series of Copenhagen-related roundtable debates that are worth checking out. In this one, Rep. Ed Markey asks how wealthier countries should help poorer ones tackle global warming. It's a timely question, since this is perhaps the biggest quagmire in the climate talks right now. A recent U.N. report estimated that developing countries would need $500 billion to $600 billion per year to get on a path of low-carbon growth, as well as to adapt to a hotter world. (On that latter point, there was a great New York Times story today on how Bolivia's already struggling to cope with receding glaciers and dwindling water supplies.) By contrast, industrialized countries have started by pledging $10 billion per year in aid—it's still not clear how close they'll get to the sums ($100 billion per year or more) that developing countries are asking for.
by OutloudOpinion

Simon Schama: Barack Obama And The Moral Weight Of Human Realism 12.14.09

Marty Peretz — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:05:35 -0500

The president came out of Oslo a different man than when he went, and Simon Schama has traced the lineaments of the change in a column in today's Financial Times. It is a sharp break for the administration which had spent its first nine months telling the rotten world that it was good and somehow persuaded itself of the nobility of the lie. One cannot overemphasize the drama of the change for which West Point was an ambiguous and ambivalent beginning.
by OutloudOpinion

Here’s How We Rid Ourselves of the Filibuster. Finally. 12.14.09

Nicholas Stephanopoulos — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:27:05 -0500

Just a few years ago, many Republicans wanted to abolish the filibuster. They thought it was unfair, maybe even unconstitutional, that the Democratic minority in the Senate was blocking certain judicial nominations. Today, it is progressives who complain that filibusters are obstructionist and undemocratic. If not for the filibuster, they say, health care reform likely would have passed months ago, and other liberal priorities--cap-and-trade, another stimulus, etc.--would be well on their way to President Obama’s desk.
by OutloudOpinion

The Ungreening of America 12.14.09

Ed Kilgore — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:25:52 -0500

If you've been following the Copenhagen process this week, you may have noticed that the "debate" over climate change and what to do about it has regressed. Whereas, just a few years ago, George W. Bush acknowledged the human role in global warming and John McCain was a leading proponent of climate-change legislation, know-nothingism is now resurgent. The GOP pins its electoral hopes on slogans like "drill, baby drill" and "cap-and-tax"; McCain has soured on cap-and-trade; and on the nation's airwaves and op-ed pages, climate-change deniers (and their more circumspect brethren, the “skeptics”) crow triumphantly at every snowstorm and every controversy, real or imagined, that puts climate scientists on the defensive.
by OutloudOpinion

How well does our embattled president grasp just war theory? 12.11.09

Michael Walzer — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:47:17 -0500

President Obama gave a pretty good speech when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe it was a little too eloquent. I don’t much like soaring rhetoric; I know there are times to soar, but Obama does it, or tries to do it, every time. Plain speech is also useful, and there was some plain speech in Norway—particularly the reiterated insistence, directed, I think, to our European friends, that sometimes making war is the only way to a just peace. He said this, not once but three or four times, “because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter the cause.” He spoke also about the horrors of war, and said all the right things, but his emphasis was on war’s occasional necessity—and these occasions are probably the most critical ones that political leaders face.
by OutloudOpinion

The Best Speech of Obama’s Presidency 12.11.09

William Galston — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:45:59 -0500

At Oslo, in circumstances verging on a speechwriter’s nightmare, Barack Obama gave by far the best address of his presidency. A thoughtful meditation on war, peace, and human nature, the speech also represents a promising reorientation of his administration’s foreign policy. The question now is whether he will adjust his policies to match his words. What struck me most favorably about the speech was Obama’s moral realism--about the world, and about his own role within it. Forcefully, but with dignity and restraint, he distinguished his responsibilities from those of King and Gandhi, who led nonviolently as private citizens. “Evil does exist in the world,” he declared, and as long as it does, war is a moral possibility, sometimes a moral necessity. And not only to defeat evil; “the instruments of war,” he said, “do have a role to play in preserving the peace.”
by OutloudOpinion

Should Obama Try to Create More Jobs or Lower the Deficit? An Exclusive Account of the White House Debate. 12.10.09

Noam Scheiber — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:31:04 -0500

As of late this summer, Democrats in Washington shared a tidy consensus about the economy: The stimulus was working more or less on schedule, and the job market was gradually recovering. That meant the administration could start thinking about how to rein in the country’s yawning budget deficit, if not actually scale it back yet. by OutloudOpinion

Can Our Economy Survive Without Big Banks? 12.9.09

William Galston — Wed, 9 Dec 2009 07:53:28 -0500

Timing is to politics what location is to real estate. Good policy ideas are useless if the time is not right. In a democracy, leaders must focus—and be seen to focus—on the problems the public cares about the most. If the political agenda is not aligned with the public agenda, the likely result is frustration and anger. Conversely, if leaders work hard on the public’s problems, the public response is likely to be favorable, even if the results are not immediate. by OutloudOpinion

Obama Has a Problem Prioritizing his Agenda 12.9.09

Simon Johnson — Wed, 9 Dec 2009 07:52:37 -0500

Increasingly, leading bankers repeat versions of the argument made recently by E. Gerald Corrigan in his Dolan Lecture at Fairfield University. Corrigan, former President of the New York Fed and a senior executive at Goldman Sachs for more than a decade, makes three main points. (1) “Large Integrated Financial Groups”--at or around their current size--offer unique functions that cannot otherwise be provided. The economy needs these groups. (2) Breaking up such groups would be extremely complex and almost certainly very disruptive. (3) An “Enhanced Resolution Authority” can mitigate the problems that are likely to occur in the future, when one or more group fails. These assertions are all completely wrong. by OutloudOpinion

Cost Benefit: Will you pay more for health insurance under the current Senate bill? 12.8.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 8 Dec 2009 09:34:02 -0500

On Monday morning, a week ago, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that, for most people, insurance would cost the same or less if the Senate's health care reform bill passes. By the afternoon, critics of health care reform rushed to the microphones, claiming vindication. CBO, these critics insisted, had determined reform would mean higher costs! What happened? The simple answer is that the critics were being deliberately deceptive. And they almost certainly were. But there's also a more complicated answer. The critics were taking advantage of widespread confusion over the definition of cost--a confusion that has been hanging over this debate for the last few months and is continuing to distort it. by OutloudOpinion

Fog of War: Why Clausewitz would not be happy with Obama’s new Afghanistan strategy. 12.8.09

William Gruver — Tue, 8 Dec 2009 09:32:26 -0500

In his legendary 19th century strategic treatise vom Kriege (On War), Carl von Clausewitz articulates several key principles of successful military strategy. President Obama, in his recent decision regarding our Afghanistan strategy, appears to have neglected many of these critical components. “Fog of war” is Clausewitz’s way of describing the opaqueness and resultant uncertainty inherent in any military campaign. Military planners must take into consideration that conditions on the ground will vary from war to war--and even from battle to battle--and thus not assume that strategies that work in one situation will necessarily translate to another. For instance, to assume that a strategy that has worked in Iraq (the surge) will certainly work in Afghanistan--with its much different terrain, familiarity with central government, history with occupations, educational levels, and culture--would be viewed by Clausewitz as naïve at best and foolish at worst. by OutloudOpinion

You Call This a Compromise? 12.7.09

Jacob Hacker — Fri, 4 Dec 2009 15:10:51 -0500

As the Senate debates the health care bill put together by Majority Leader Reid, the scramble is on to come up with a new compromise regarding the public option--the public health insurance plan modeled after Medicare that will be offered within the new health insurance exchange to Americans who lack workplace health insurance (and to workers in small firms that decide to buy coverage through the exchange). by OutloudOpinion

Bernanke Testifies: Is the Chairman Risking the Fed's Independence? 12.4.09

Noam Scheiber — Fri, 4 Dec 2009 14:45:00 -0500

Conservatives like to quip that, for the average member of Congress, spending other people’s money is the best part of the job. If that’s true, then grilling the Fed chairman after a financial crisis has to rank a close second. The members of the Senate Banking Committee didn't hold back when Ben Bernanke made his case for a second term on Thursday. Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning worked himself into a sputtering rage reading from transcripts of old Bernanke testimony, including one from 2005 in which the chairman deemed the risks in the banking system to be "well-managed and well-controlled." by OutloudOpinion

Three Ways The Copenhagen Talks Could Succeed (Or Go Bust) 12.4.09

Jesse Zwick — Fri, 4 Dec 2009 13:03:09 -0500

Given that there's virtually no chance a finished climate treaty will come out of the upcoming talks in Copenhagen, one might be forgiven for asking what, exactly, the world's diplomats are actually going to do these next two weeks in Denmark. Already, further talks are scheduled for next year—including yet another big climate summit in Mexico City in 2010. But with only so many negotiating sessions to go around, most climate-policy experts agree that tangible progress needs to be made at Copenhagen if there's to be a chance of a new global treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012. by OutloudOpinion

So Much Gasbaggery, So Little Time: Why Obama is obsessed with summits. 12.3.09

Jason Zengerle — Thu, 3 Dec 2009 13:19:20 -0500

Barack Obama convened his first official summit before he was even elected president. In October 2008, then-candidate Obama gathered a gaggle of business and political heavyweights--Paul Volcker, Eric Schmidt, Jennifer Granholm, Bill Richardson, etc.--in a Florida community college gymnasium for what his campaign billed as the “Growing American Jobs Summit.” “No cheerleading,” Obama admonished the 1,700 people who packed into the sweltering gym expecting a campaign rally. “We’ve got serious work to be done.” And then, for the next 90 minutes, Obama and the assembled worthies engaged in a wonky discussion that ranged from ideas for fixing the country’s electrical grid to calls for reforming its banking system. by OutloudOpinion

Living With Another Public Option Compromise 12.3.09

Jonthan Cohn — Thu, 3 Dec 2009 13:18:17 -0500

As you’ve probably read or heard by now, the public option debate seems headed back to an old compromise, albeit with a new twist or two. This clearly isn’t good news. But I’m not sure it’s awful news, either. In the two weeks since Harry Reid rounded up sixty votes to begin debate on his health reform bill, it’s become clear that he probably can’t count on the same sixty votes to pass it. The single biggest reason is the public option. by OutloudOpinion

Obama Sticks to His Guns 12.2.09

Michael Crowley — Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:48:15 -0500

Listening to Barack Obama explain his new strategy for Afghanistan tonight, you may have been struck by a sense of deja vu. Before a sea of somber West Point cadets, Obama invoked the grim memory of the September 11 attacks. He vowed that the days of “blank check" policymaking are over. He called al Qaeda a “cancer” that threatens the region and said he would not allow the group a safe haven there. He insisted that the U.S. would get tougher about corruption within the Karzai government and would extend a hand to low-level Taliban fighters willing to switch sides. He pledged to accelerate training of Afghan security forces and explained that doing so will allow our troops to return home. by OutloudOpinion

Republicans Love Medicare, Except When They Don't 12.2.09

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:48:13 -0500

Remember those days of yore, when John McCain was a man who put principle over partisan politics, somebody who could be counted upon to speak the truth? John McCain doesn't. Yesterday, McCain began the Republican assault on health care reform by proposing to strip the Senate bill of its proposed $487 billion in Medicare reductions. The "unspecified" reductions, McCain said, would "directly impact the health care of citizens in this country": by OutloudOpinion

Meet the Six Most Influential Congressmen in the Afghanistan Debate 12.2.09

Lydia DiPillis and Jesse Zwick — Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:48:11 -0500

No matter what you think of it, the kind of troop increase that President Obama announced tonight is going to be expensive. With an estimated $1 billion dollar price tag for each additional thousand troops deployed, the new strategy will drive costs well above the $130 billion originally budgeted by the administration for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal year 2010, likely requiring a supplemental spending bill to pass sometime early next year. You can expect the fight over that bill to get nasty. by OutloudOpinion

Against Common Sense 12.1.09

Damon Linker — Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:44:11 -0500

Conservatives would have us believe that they hold a monopoly on common sense. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and many other right-wing rabble-rousers regularly portray themselves as defenders of the good, old-fashioned common sense of average Americans against an out-of-touch liberal elite. A growing cadre of ambitious politicians likewise aims to lead a crusade in the name of “commonsense conservatism.” Glenn Beck has even gone so far as to publish a runaway bestseller that explicitly piggybacks on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense to argue against the danger of “out-of-control government” and the forces of organized foolishness that would foist it on the American people. by OutloudOpinion

Karzai's Fall: How did a man once hailed as the savior of Afghanistan become its scourge? 12.1.09

Jean MacKenzie — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 10:16:54 -0500

The president beamed, the guests applauded. As Hamid Karzai was sworn in for his second term in office amid a throng of 800 international and domestic dignitaries on November 18, one could almost forget that his presidency is under a cloud, his international support hanging by a thread, and his domestic standing lower than ever. It was a stark difference from his first inauguration, in December 2004. Then, the U.S. vice president and defense secretary were both in attendance; the capital throbbed with hope; and, for just a little while, it seemed that Karzai was riding a wave of national and international approbation that nothing could stop. How did a man once hailed as the savior of Afghanistan become its scourge? by OutloudOpinion

What Israel Can Teach Us About Rebuilding an Economy 12.1.09

William Galston — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 10:15:48 -0500

The wall between The Wall Street Journal’s news division and its editorial page makes for a lot of good reporting and a fair amount of cognitive dissonance as well. For example, the November 24 edition featured an article, tucked away on A14, about Israel’s response to the economic crisis. In it we learn that the Netanyahu government raised taxes, avoided traditional stimulus measures, and ruled out government bailouts for banks and bondholders. In short, the government rejected supply-side economics, Keynesian economics, and “too big to fail” economics—a trifecta of heresies against the competing orthodoxies that dominate the U.S. landscape. The result: a rebound that Barclays analysts call “the strongest recovery story” in Europe and the Middle East. by OutloudOpinion

The Downside of 'Smart Power' 11.30.09

Jesse Zwick — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:23:29 -0500

After ten months of waiting, USAID finally has a new chief: Rajiv Shah, currently the agriculture department’s top scientist. Directing the country’s principal agency for administering foreign aid is a heady position for someone who is all of 36. And it’s going to be a difficult one. Shah is stepping into the middle of a struggle that has been quietly simmering for years in Washington. On the surface, it’s a classic bureaucratic turf battle over who gets to control foreign aid--USAID staffers or the State Department, which assumed control of the once-autonomous organization in 2006. Several months ago, one USAID employee told me that colleagues at the agency see themselves as “being colonized” by State. A longtime USAID watcher put it this way: “They’re paranoid, that’s for sure. There’s a culture of victimization going on over there, and for good reason.” by OutloudOpinion

What Dubai Means for the U.S. 11.30.09

Noam Scheiber — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:20:38 -0500

Traders are racing to figure out what the default by Dubai World Group on $60 billion of debt means for their portfolios and the global economy. Dubai World is a conglomerate with large holdings of commercial real estate and ports across the globe, among other assets. The government of Dubai, one of seven states that form the United Arab Emirates, owns 100 percent of the company, but has no obligation to back its debt. At this point, I see four potential consequences for the United States: by OutloudOpinion

We Know How this Debate Ends. Or Do We? 11.30.09

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:19:50 -0500

On Monday, the full Senate will begin deliberations over the bill Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced before Thanksgiving. And the ultimate resolution of that process wouldn't seem to be in much doubt. Republicans will do whatever they can to drag out the debate. But unless political circumstances change drastically, they probably will not succeed in stopping reform altogether. Instead, the Senate will vote for a bill, work out its differences with the House, and send legislation to the White House for the president to sign. by OutloudOpinion

The Next Paris Hilton? Why Sarah Palin isn’t going away any time soon. 11.25.09

Jason Zengerle — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:58:16 -0500

Last week, I clicked over to the CNN home page and there, in a rundown of the day’s most important news, I saw a headline announcing that Nicole Richie had pneumonia. I immediately thought of Sarah Palin: I fully expect that, five or ten or 15 years from now, I’ll be reading a similar headline about her. by OutloudOpinion

Is Russia Finally Getting Serious About Iran? 11.25.09

Michael Crowley — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:55:57 -0500

In recent weeks, Barack Obama's foreign policy has been derided by critics who say he has almost nothing to show for his first 10 months in office. But on one of his most important priorities--stopping Iran's relentless march towards a nuclear weapon--he may be quietly reaping a critical diplomatic turnaround: Russia may finally be getting serious about Iran's nuclear program. by OutloudOpinion

Could Wall Street Actually Lose in Congress? 11.24.09

Noam Scheiber — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:15:18 -0500

Something strange and a little disorienting is happening in the fight to reform Wall Street: It looks like the reformers are actually starting to win. This is not something you could have said as recently as six weeks ago. Back then, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank had just released a proposal to regulate derivatives, essentially bets on the movements of other assets (like stocks, bonds, commodities) or interest rates. Derivatives are in some respects the key battle in the broader regulatory campaign. They were at the center of last fall’s financial crisis--Lehman’s balance sheet was stacked with them, and they triggered AIG’s collapse. But because they’re so poorly understood by the general public, the fight has unfolded almost entirely in Congressional backrooms, where the banks and their lobbyists naturally have the upper hand. by OutloudOpinion

Can Reform Actually Improve Medical Care? Not-So-Promising Signs From the Senate Bill. 11.24.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:14:16 -0500

Health professionals spend many thousands of hours training to cure disease. But they can learn how to stop the spread of deadly hospital infections in just a few minutes, by learning five steps for putting lines (that is, tubes) into patients’ bodies. Wash your hands. Clean the patient’s skin with chlorhexidine, a special antiseptic. Cover the patient fully in sterile drapes. Don full protective gear, including mask and gown. Add a sterile covering to the site afterwards. by OutloudOpinion

How Much Is Nature Worth, Anyway? 11.24.09

Bradford Plumer — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:13:28 -0500

Can we stick a price tag on nature? And even if we can—does that mean we should? In recent years, ecological economists have argued that people will never value natural resources properly unless that value can be expressed in terms of dollars and cents. And that's the logic behind the U.N.'s big, ongoing study of "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity" (TEEB)—a project that's trying to quantify just what the world's actually losing as species and habitats vanish at an alarming rate, casting the damage in raw monetary terms. by OutloudOpinion

Popularity Contest Has Obama gone too far? 11.23.09

Jonathan Chait — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:05:11 -0500

On the inside cover of the last issue of The New Republic, the conservative American Future Fund (AFF) took out an advertisement helpfully warning moderate Democrats to abandon health care reform. The ad features head shots of numerous Democratic members of Congress who lost their seats in 1994. The headline reads, “THE LOSERS OF 1994 … THANKS TO HEALTH CARE!” by OutloudOpinion

Should We Laugh? Cry? Both? 11.23.09

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:05:09 -0500

The ritual is becoming familiar. Health care reform passes a major political hurdle. And progressives don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Last time, the occasion was a vote in the House of Representatives. Health care reform passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats had extracted a major concession on abortion rights. by OutloudOpinion

Can the U.S. and India Play Nice on Climate Change? 11.23.09

Jesse Zwick — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:05:07 -0500

A number of unresolved issues—China, Kashmir, etc.—will be swirling around Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first state visit this Monday, but on none are the two hesitant allies more at odds than the conditions for a global climate treaty. Much of the news in the lead up to Copenhagen has centered on the possibility of some sort of deal between the two largest emitters, the U.S. and China. India, however, could very well be a more important (and elusive) partner in those talks. That’s because over the last year India has adopted the not-so-quiet role as unofficial spokesperson for the developing world and staunch opponent of mandatory caps on carbon. And if the U.S. and China are still working out some unresolved differences, their negotiations have been downright rosy compared to the headway the U.S. has made with India thus far. by OutloudOpinion

Grading the Reid Bill on a Curve 11.20.09

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:05:05 -0500

Legislative language for the Senate bill has been available for just over twelve hours, a preliminary Congressional Budget Office assessment for even less than that. And, already, it's clear that the fine print requires, well, some fine analysis. But before we get to that, let's take a step back and ask the simple question: Should we be happy about this bill? The answer depends entirely upon your frame of reference. by OutloudOpinion

One Way to Rebuild America 11.20.09

William Galston — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:01:29 -0500

As anyone who has used a passport recently knows, infrastructure in the United States has fallen well below world standards. Decades of underinvestment have taken their toll, fiscally hard-pressed states are cutting back, and the current system of federal appropriations for infrastructure projects precludes a coordinated approach that matches the scale of the problem and reflects national priorities. by OutloudOpinion

What's Next For Palestine: The Failed Presidency of Mahmoud Abbas 11.18.09

Shmuel Rosner — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:31:03 -0500

Israeli officials and experts were initially reacting to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's promise not to seek re-election in one of three ways: They believed him and didn’t really care; they believed him and worried about the possible vacuum following his disappearance from the political scene; or they didn’t believe him. Last week, the third option seemed to be the most common read in Jerusalem. Abbas is bluffing, the reasoning goes, in the hope of getting more sympathy from the international community, making Israel more prone to concessions, and forcing a nervous American administration to pressure Israel some more. Now there’s a document that suggests both sides are wrong: by OutloudOpinion

EXCLUSIVE: A Confidential Industry Document and What It Says About Obamacare (Good and Bad) 11.18.09

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:29:43 -0500

Ask doctors, hospitals, drugmakers, or insurers for their opinion of President Obama’s health care proposals, and you’ll likely get an earful about how reform will severely hurt their bottom line. Ask many liberals, and you’ll hear the opposite complaint: that the current incarnation of reform won’t affect these industries enough to significantly alter their behavior. Now there’s a document that suggests both sides are wrong: by OutloudOpinion

Remembering the twitchy, terrifying final days of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. 11.17.09

Thomas Omestad — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:08:33 -0500

The opening moments of what became known as Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution” did not feel so velvety. Nor did the outcome of those events--a largely peaceful triumph of the people over a stifling authoritarian system--seem certain. For those on the streets of Prague on the evening of Friday, November 17, 1989, it was easy to imagine a tragedy-in-the-making and perhaps a reprieve, of sorts, for a dying regime. The rosy glow of hindsight with which we remember the Velvet Revolution had not yet formed. by OutloudOpinion

Quibbling with Krugman on the Chinese 11.17.09

Noam Scheiber — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:00:50 -0500

I agree with pretty much everything Paul Krugman writes in his column today about the Chinese and their currency shenanigans--especially the point that the Chinese have rigged it so that our bilateral trade deficit will spike once the recovery gets going. (And the point that the forces driving our trade deficit were only temporarily suppressed by the recession.) by OutloudOpinion

Cost Control, Still Not a Fantasy 11.17.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:59:48 -0500

Opponents of reform have long dismissed the possibility that the bills moving through Congress might actually reduce the cost of medical care. Now they're citing, as proof of their argument, a new analysis from Medicare's Office of the Actuary. At the request of Congressional Republicans, the Office of Actuary (headed by Rick Foster) projected how the bill that recently passed the House of Representatives would affect insurance coverage, costs to the government, and overall national health spending. by OutloudOpinion

The Third Intifada 11.16.09

Steven A. Cook — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:44:41 -0500

The Palestinian territories are descending into chaos, but many in Washington seem unconcerned. The Palestinians in the West Bank have too much to lose from a new uprising, some are arguing, given the recent moderate improvements in their daily lives. Others assert that the Palestinian Authority Security Forces, trained under American supervision, will prevent the Palestinians from making the mistakes of 1987 and 2000. Yet the dynamics of Palestinian politics indicate that a third intifada is likely to erupt in the near future. If history is any guide, the Palestinian leadership of the West Bank--whether it includes Mahmoud Abbas or not--may again look to a violence to improve its sagging domestic popularity. by OutloudOpinion

Reset Button: The gaffes of Hillary Clinton. 11.16.09

Michael Crowley — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:43:30 -0500

When Barack Obama tapped Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state, the typical reaction came in two stages. The first was to think it was nuts. How could two blood rivals possibly make good foreign policy together? The second, a reconsideration, was to think it a stroke of genius. Secretary of state is a job that demands extreme dedication and diligence, requiring its occupant to learn the fine details of everything from the Kashmir dispute to Taiwanese independence--and to articulate U.S. policy with flawless precision. Who could be better for this task than Clinton? by OutloudOpinion

Hope and Betrayal in Berlin: What I learned while watching the Wall come down 20 years ago. 11.16.09

Chris Matthews — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:51:49 -0500

Twenty years ago, I was there when the Berlin Wall was coming down. What I witnessed about human aspiration in those magic November days in 1989 thrills me even now. But what it showed me about politics may be even more important. “What is freedom?” I began asking people as I waded through the crowd gathered at the Brandenburg Gate. by OutloudOpinion

Stupak is as Stupak Does 11.13.09

Jeffrey Rosen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:07:46 -0500

Is it worth sacrificing health care reform for ideological purity on abortion? That’s the question Democrats are facing after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to avoid derailing health care legislation, reluctantly accepted an amendment offered by Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak that prohibits people who receive any federal health care subsidies from buying insurance plans that cover abortion. by OutloudOpinion

Frenemies: The testy relationship between Obama and the EU. 11.13.09

Ronland Flamini — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:12:14 -0500

Last week’s U.S.-EU annual summit differed from its predecessors in ways that fuel the perception on the other side of the Atlantic that Barack Obama is just not that interested in Europe. First, there was the venue of the opening lunch: Blair House, the government’s official guest house, not the usual White House. Then, there was the luncheon’s host: Vice-President Joe Biden, not the president himself. And, finally, there was the time frame for discussion: European leaders only got 90 minutes of direct talks with the president instead of the customary two hours (minimum), plus a press conference. by OutloudOpinion

How Much Will $37 Trillion Buy Us? 11.13.09

Bradford Plumer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:10:59 -0500

Yesterday, the International Energy Agency, at its "World Energy Outlook" conference in London, announced that the world would need at least $37 trillion in investments between now and 2030 to stabilize greenhouse-gas emissions below sustainable levels. (By "sustainable," they mean keeping carbon concentrations in the atmosphere below 450 ppm—note that some climatologists, notably NASA's Jim Hansen, worry we need to dial back to 350 ppm to avoid the worst effects of climate change.) by OutloudOpinion

The November Pogrom 11.12.09

Adam Kirsch — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:26:45 -0500

In our collective memory of the Holocaust, Kristallnacht occupies a central but ambiguous place. If you look simply at the statistics, there is little reason why the events of November 9-10, 1938, should loom so large. According to the Nazis themselves, 91 Jews were killed in the nationwide pogrom that became known as the “Night of Broken Glass.” by OutloudOpinion

Zoning for Carbon Reduction 11.12.09

Jonathan Rothwell — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:25:32 -0500

In a recent post citing our data on metro cap-and-trade costs, Free Exchange, the blog of the Economist, fears that people are moving from “clean” metropolitan areas with low carbon emissions to “dirtier” ones with higher emissions. As evidence, the author points to a recent paper by Ed Glaeser and Matthew Kahn, who argue that clean places have set up the most onerous barriers to population growth. by OutloudOpinion

New Evidence of Pharma's Sweetheart Deal 11.11.09

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:43:10 -0500

Critics have complained that a drug industry got a sweetheart deal when it struck a bargain with the White House and Senate Finance Committee over health care reform. There’s new reason to think those critics were right. by OutloudOpinion

Why Is the Senate Going to Take So Long? 11.11.09

Suzy Khimm — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:42:16 -0500

The House health care bill took all of ten days to pass, from the day Nancy Pelosi formally introduced the legislation to its historic passage on Saturday. The Senate is slated to take up the bill as early as next Monday, but it’s likely to be a much longer slog. Due to differences between House and Senate rules, there’s plenty on the Senate side that could delay the bill for weeks, or even months, prompting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to announce that the final bill won’t pass until Christmas, at the earliest. Here’s a rundown of what needs to happen for the health-care bill to pass in the Senate--and the tactics that its opponents are likely to use to slow down the process: by OutloudOpinion

America’s Stealth Industrial Policy 11.10.09

Jonathan Rothwell and Mark Muro — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:48:23 -0500

Economists continue to debate whether the U.S. can rebalance its trade deficit and lead itself into recovery through exports, with skeptics’ doubts prompted anew by the fact that U.S. consumer spending explained the bulk of last week’s announced 3.5 percent third-quarter GDP rise. Given that, it’s worth asking: Does the U.S. have a national export strategy? by OutloudOpinion

The House Bill Is "Worse Than Nothing"? Really? 11.10.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:47:13 -0500

Marcia Angell, M.D., is one of the nation's most well-respected experts on health care issues. And with good reason. A board-certified pathologist who also trained in internal medicine, she's a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Her writing credits include The Truth About Drug Companies and an award-winning article at TNR on the same subject. by OutloudOpinion

Budapest, The Berlin Wall, and Iran: What Obama Does Not Grasp 11.9.09

Marty Peretz — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:23:27 -0500

It is just about 30 years since the wall around Iran went up. And it is a few days away from fully 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down. The Berliner Mauer had been up for more than a quarter century, and its surface facing east, grim gray, was a metaphor for life in the German Democratic Republic. On its western face graffiti evoked the freer spirit of the half-city whose heart had nonetheless been broken by the Soviet goose step that divided it. And the Cold War was won on the very day the authorities of the D.D.R. were simply coerced by the power of human will to let its subjects scramble over the deeply ugly barrier into a Berlin with life and life-blood. by OutloudOpinion

Building Blocs: How the EU has inadvertently become the best democracy promotion organization the world has ever known. 11.9.09

Joshua A. Tucker — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 13:47:12 -0500

Monday marks the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is worth pausing to recall just how momentous, and unanticipated, this event and those that followed were. My students today have no memory of the cold war; to them, Prague and Budapest, just like Paris and Madrid, are simply places to visit or study in Europe. For the people who lived under communism, however, the system's collapse ushered in an economic transformation unlike any the modern world had ever seen: inflation wiped out the savings of millions of people; unemployment went from being (officially) non-existent to a chronic problem; and homes, businesses, and entire industries passed from state hands to private ownership. by OutloudOpinion

With Them or With Us 11.6.09

Abbas Milani — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:34:15 -0500

Almost three decades ago, a group of radical Islamist students, dressed in army fatigues or covered in scarves and black chadors, forced their way into the American embassy in Tehran. According to some accounts, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then a student at a second-tier technical college in Tehran, was invited to join the hostage takers. He declined, saying he would join only if they would also occupy the Soviet embassy in Tehran. “No to the West, No to the East” was in those days the much-touted slogan of the regime. by OutloudOpinion

The House Public Plan: Yes, It's Worth It 11.6.09

Jacob S. Hacker and Diane Archer — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:32:46 -0500

How short memories are in Washington. A few weeks ago, when it looked possible that Nancy Pelosi could marshal enough Democratic support to create a “robust” public insurance option with rates tied to Medicare’s, everyone was talking about the big savings and reduced premiums that a series of estimates by the CBO showed this option could create. Then, the concern was that the public insurance plan would put private insurers out of business by using the government’s bargaining power to drive too hard a bargain with providers, creating an “un-level” playing field. by OutloudOpinion

Obama's Sudan Envoy Is an Embarrassment. Fire Him. 11.5.09

The Editors of The New Republic — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:57:02 -0500

Scott Gration is an embarrassment. As Barack Obama's special envoy to Sudan, Gration has a dual mission: to help win justice and peace for the nearly three million Darfuris who currently live in camps after being subjected to genocide by Sudan's government; and to prevent that same odious government from initiating another slaughter in southern Sudan, where a 2005 peace agreement is looking more tenuous by the day. by OutloudOpinion

Cruise Control Take this conservative argument on health care seriously. 11.5.09

Jonathan Cohn — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:56:11 -0500

When conservatives scream about socialized medicine and death panels, you should tune them out. But lately conservatives have been making an argument you should hear. It's about whether we can believe Congress when it promises to raise taxes or cut spending--and, as such, whether we can believe that health care reform can actually be fiscally responsible. by OutloudOpinion

Mixed Messages: The center proves to be the most popular place in American politics. 11.4.09

John Judis — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:22:46 -0500

Republicans are proclaiming victory after their candidates won statehouses in New Jersey and Virginia. And well they should. These were both states that went for Barack Obama in 2008. But how much do these elections really say about Obama and the prospects of the national Democratic Party? by OutloudOpinion

Beware this Republican Narrative 11.4.09

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 12:23:18 -0500

With the House set to vote on a full health care reform bill as early as this week, Republican leader John Boehner has announced that the GOP leadership will introduce a formal alternative of their own. The proper response, I suppose, is "Are you kidding?" by OutloudOpinion

Abdullah vs. Karzai: A long and twisted saga of alliance and betrayal, 30 years in the making. 11.3.09

Jean MacKenzie — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 14:35:51 -0500

The spectacle of Afghanistan’s presidential elections seems to be finally entering its final act. Pulling out of the runoff race at the last minute, Abdullah Abdullah has cleared the way for Hamed Karzai to be the winner by default. Both men appear to have achieved many, if not all, of their original goals. Karzai, of course, has retained his seat for another five years. Abdullah, the underdog, has denied Karzai the much-needed legitimacy that a second round of voting was supposed to confer. Now the Afghan president will be serving under the cloud created by the massive fraud that characterized the first round of voting in August. by OutloudOpinion

Nuclear Option An atomic bargain with the GOP? 11.3.09

Bradford Plumer — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 14:05:53 -0500

Nukes, nukes, and … nukes. These days, when it comes to energy and climate change, that seems to be all Republicans want to talk about. Throughout last week's hearings on the Senate climate bill, Lamar Alexander kept interjecting that a massive ramp-up of nuclear power was the only real solution to global warming, bringing up the subject at every turn by OutloudOpinion

Dear Rahm: Barack Obama and Yitzhak Rabin, The Link That Will Not Help 11.3.09

Marty Peretz — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 14:04:26 -0500

When Rabin was getting into his car to go home a young man, a self-designated emissary, calmly stepped from the crowd and shot two bullets from his Beretta semi-automatic pistol into the prime minister's body. Rabin was dead within 40 minutes. by OutloudOpinion

Color Commentator: Rush Limbaugh's race obsession. 11.2.09

Jonathan Chait — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 12:36:20 -0500

The saga of Rush Limbaugh and his failed attempt to acquire a piece of the St. Louis Rams may be the quintessential postmodern American racial incident. When word first leaked of Limbaugh's potential ownership, a couple of sportswriters, joined by a handful of cable news talking heads, repeated what turned out to be totally unsubstantiated quotes by Limbaugh praising slavery and James Earl Ray. by OutloudOpinion

Why Read Heidegger 11.2.09

Damon Linker — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 12:34:59 -0500

German philosopher Martin Heidegger gets a lot of bad press. And for good reason. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis, he did and said and wrote some nasty things before and after serving as the rector of Freiburg University from 1933-1934, and though he eventually distanced himself from his earlier enthusiasm for Hitler, he seems never to have ceased believing that there was an "inner truth and greatness" (those are Heidegger's own words, spoken in a lecture from 1935) to the National Socialist movement. That sounds bad, and it is. By now, scholars have demonstrated beyond just about any reasonable doubt that, judged from moral and political standpoints, Heidegger was a pretty despicable human being. by OutloudOpinion

Is the Public Ready for Bold Action? 10.30.09

William Galston — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:52:52 -0400

It’s a mistake to put too much weight on the results of any single public opinion survey. That said, Peter Hart and Bill McInturff are an unusually experienced and fair-minded bipartisan team, and I’m inclined to take their work for NBC and the Wall Street Journal seriously. Their latest results offer little encouragement for the president, either political party, or the political system as a whole. by OutloudOpinion

Pouring Cold Water on Your GDP Numbers 10.30.09

Noam Scheiber — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:51:56 -0400

Here's my concern with the impressive-looking GDP growth number of 3.5 percent: It reflects a lot of one-off boosts to growth and masks trends that are likely to get worse. Consider this one-sentence summary from the Bureau of Economic Analysis: by OutloudOpinion

Can We Fix Too Big to Fail Without Shrinkage? 10.29.09

Noam Scheiber — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:56:36 -0400

David Wessel has a column in today’s Wall Street Journal laying out three approaches to solving our Too Big Too Fail (TBTF) problem. The first two amount to different ways of “busting them up,” as Wessel puts it. The third, which the administration and the Fed have endorsed, amounts to forcing banks to hold more capital, scrutinizing their balance sheets more vigorously, and obtaining some sort of “resolution authority.” That last reform would allow the government to liquidate a megabank in an orderly way (like the FDIC does with smaller banks), rather than either bail them out entirely or simply let them implode, a la Lehman Brothers. by OutloudOpinion

Root Causes: We’ve got to figure out what our aims are in Afghanistan before we talk strategy. 10.29.09

Andrew J. Bacevich — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:54:55 -0400

The "strategic" debate over Afghanistan is a diversion that serves chiefly to distract attention from the condition of strategic bankruptcy that President Obama inherited. The issues in Afghanistan do not qualify as strategic. They barely rise to the level of operational. To the extent that the war in Afghanistan can claim to have any purpose, that purpose derives from its relationship to the larger struggle variously called the global war on terror or World War IV or the Long War. by OutloudOpinion

Energy Innovation: The Senate Starting Point 10.28.09

Mark Muro — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:47:15 -0400

The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee has gone to work today on the new chairman’s “mark” of the draft Senate climate and energy legislation released Friday night by committee Chairman Barbara Boxer, co-sponsored by Sen. John Kerry. This document will be the starting point for the next round of debate, and with this draft, we get to see for the first time how the bill proposes to allocate the revenue it would raise through the sale of pollution allowances. by OutloudOpinion

More Signs of Trouble for 2010 10.28.09

William Galston — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:45:22 -0400

The current state of American politics presents a paradox. On the one hand, survey after survey testifies to the rock-bottom standing of the Republican Party. Fewer Americans identify with the party than in the past, and fewer trust it to deal with the country’s problems. On the other hand, there are hard-to-ignore signs of a conservative resurgence. A 15,000 person Gallup survey out today shows that 40 percent of Americans now identify themselves as conservative (up from 37 percent at the time of Obama’s election), while only 20 percent regard themselves as liberal (down from 22 percent). by OutloudOpinion

Putin's Game: Why Russia won't cooperate on Iranian sanctions. 10.27.09

Seth Robinson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:13:20 -0400

After years of stalemate, negotiations over Iran's controversial nuclear development program seemed to progress last week when an Iranian delegation in Vienna agreed to the export and modification of its low-enriched uranium. by OutloudOpinion

Washington Diarist: Common Grounded 10.27.09

Leon Wieseltier — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:12:02 -0400

The notion of a world society is nothing new to Americans. It dominated the rhetoric of World War II, of the founding of the United Nations, of much of the cold war. It is now a received idea, and its impress may be measured by the success with which advocates have found audiences for issues defined in international terms: the world environmental problem; the world population problem; the world food problem." by OutloudOpinion

Democrats Taking from the Poor?! 10.27.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:02:05 -0400

As political pressure has reduced the price tag of expanding coverage to below $1 trillion over ten years, many observers assumed Democrats would react by trimming financial assistance for the middle class--that is, people making between twice and four times the poverty line, or between $44,000 to $88,000 for a family of four. by OutloudOpinion

Recessional: The T. E. Lawrence of Afghanistan. 10.26.09

Jason Zengerle — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:19:53 -0400

It's some 400 miles from Harvard Square to Capitol Hill, but when Rory Stewart made the trip last month, he chose an unlikely mode of transport: He took a plane. Stewart is an inveterate, epic walker. He spent part of this past summer strolling the 150 miles from Crieff to Penrith in his native Scotland. by OutloudOpinion

Senate Dems to Obama: Um, a Little Help Here? 10.26.09

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:18:41 -0400

After a weekend of furious activity, Democratic leaders in the Senate think they are close to getting the votes they need in order to pass an "opt-out" version of the public option. But they feel like President Obama could be doing more to help them, with one senior staffer telling TNR on Sunday that the leadership would like, but has yet to receive, a clear "signal" of support for their effort. by OutloudOpinion

The Hurry-Up Offense 10.23.09

Steven Metz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:00:01 -0400

Just how upset should the military be about Obama's indecision on Afghanistan? by OutloudOpinion

The Hard Sell: How Obama should play the politics of an Afghanistan troop surge. 10.21.09

Patrick Egan and Joshua A. Tucker — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:25:06 -0400

President Obama faces an enormous political challenge in figuring out how to respond to General Stanley McChrystal's request for more soldiers in Afghanistan. One the one hand, resisting troop requests from the military during a time of war is difficult for any chief executive--particularly for Democratic presidents. by OutloudOpinion

The Consensus on Big Banks is Beginning to Crack 10.21.09

Simon Johnson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:23:17 -0400

Just when our biggest banks thought they were out of the woods and into the money, the official consensus in their favor begins to crack. The Obama administration’s publicly stated view--from the highest level in the White House--remains that the banks cannot or should not be broken up. Their argument is that the big banks can be regulated into permanently low risk behavior. by OutloudOpinion

Not All Bad: What the insurance industry got right. 10.21.09

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:13:14 -0400

The insurance industry did itself no favors last week when it released a report purporting to show that health care reform would cause insurance premiums to skyrocket. The report focused on only a few specific changes contained in the various reform bills, rather than the bills in their entirety. by OutloudOpinion

Can Obama Learn From His Mistakes? Here's an Easy One, and He Can Even Fob It Off on Susan Rice 10.21.09

Marty Peretz — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:11:52 -0400

There were two disasters in and around the Goldstone Report. by OutloudOpinion

'Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast': Detroit's Bi-Polar Thinking on Auto Recovery 10.19.09

John Austin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:20:09 -0400

Over 140 economists, researchers, Michigan and Ohio state and local officials, business and non-profit leaders recently camped for two days at the Detroit Branch of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, to review--in ghastly, numerical detail--the economic and human toll of the collapse of the auto industry, and to vet any and all approaches to aid dislocated auto workers in response. by OutloudOpinion

How to Get Around Bad CBO Scores 10.19.09

William Galston — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:13:16 -0400

With all the focus on a handful of high-profile items, many important features in the House and Senate health reform proposals are being overlooked. And some of these neglected items bear on the fiscal soundness of whatever reform is eventually adopted. by OutloudOpinion

The Obama Administration Finally Has an Official Darfur Policy. But Where’s Obama? 10.19.09

Barron YoungSmith — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:32:02 -0400

For months, the White House has been saying that President Obama would personally roll out the results of his administration's long-delayed Sudan Policy Review, which will officially set the direction of U.S. policy for Darfur and South Sudan, a region that will soon decide whether to become an independent country. by OutloudOpinion

Spend and Deliver 10.19.09

The Editors — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:30:52 -0400

Congress has been formally debating health care reform for almost nine months. And the country, as a whole, has been debating it for years. But now that the last congressional committee with jurisdiction has approved legislation, lawmakers are confronting the essential conundrum that's bedeviled this issue all along: Their desire to expand health insurance coverage exceeds their willingness to pay for it. by OutloudOpinion

The Case Against Awards: Why the wrong person always wins. 10.16.09

Jonathan Chait — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:15:32 -0400

Last month, rapper Kanye West interrupted an MTV Video Awards ceremony to protest the selection of Taylor Swift for "Best Female Video." So widely did the fallout from this episode spread that President Obama soon weighed in against West ("He’s a jackass"). by OutloudOpinion

The Civilian Surge Myth: The U.S. needs to stop pretending it can do nation-building 10.15.09

Steven Metz — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:07:00 -0400

How can we snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Afghanistan? There's one solution that has attracted analysts of all stripes: a "civilian surge," by OutloudOpinion

Did "Smart Guys" Destroy Wall Street? 10.15.09

Noam Scheiber — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:05:47 -0400

“The financial system nearly collapsed,” he said, “because smart guys had started working on Wall Street.” ... by OutloudOpinion

Ten Things Worth Fighting For in a Health Care Bill 10.14.09

Jonathan Cohn — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:09:46 -0400

It’s been almost a hundred years since progressives began the campaign to make health care a right. And never before has the campaign come this far. Five congressional committees have now had their say about health care reform. And, as of Tuesday afternoon, all five have said “aye.” by OutloudOpinion

Left Behind: Why aid for Darfur's rape survivors has all but disappeared. 10.14.09

Rebecca Hamilton — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:59:22 -0400

When Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March, he responded by expelling 13 international aid agencies from Darfur and disbanding three other domestic relief groups. Khartoum claims the organizations were sharing information with the ICC, which both the groups and the court deny. by OutloudOpinion

Dick's Daughter Takes It Up a Notch 10.14.09

Michelle Cottle — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:55:26 -0400

When I read today's Politico piece about Liz Cheney's new "Keep America Safe," a foreign-policy focused group aimed at saving this nation from the "radical" Obama White House, two things immediately sprang to mind: by OutloudOpinion

Afghanistan Is NOT at a Turning Point. So Here's What We Should Do. 10.13.09

A.J. Rossmiller — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:03:41 -0400

Why a real counter-insurgency strategy is not possible in Afghanistan--and why politics may be the answer. by OutloudOpinion

Bombs Away: The only credible threat Obama can leverage against Iran 10.13.09

Jeffrey Herf — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:02:22 -0400

Our negotiations with Iran are not off to a good start. After the initial meeting in Geneva on October 1--with Iran on one side and Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the United States on the other--Iranian representatives said they had agreed to send processed uranium to Russia by OutloudOpinion

Comcast, the biggest threat to free speech since Nixon. 10.12.09

Jeffrey Rosen — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:50:30 -0400

Network neutrality: It’s a development that could be more significant to the future of free speech than any milestone since the Supreme Court’s decision in New York Times v. Sullivan in 1964. by OutloudOpinion

Galston Vs. Cohen: Was McChrystal Right to Go Public? 10.12.09

William Galston — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:49:08 -0400

Entering or expanding a war is the gravest decision a political community can make. Lives, scarce resources, and honor are at stake, and the consequences of mistaken judgments are both large and lasting. Whatever may be the case for other regimes, a democracy cannot sustain the decision to enter or expand a war without the people’s informed assent. by OutloudOpinion

What Washington Should Do to Create Jobs 10.9.09

Rob Shapiro — Fri, 9 Oct 2009 14:23:43 -0400

Policymakers and pundits who finally are worried about a "jobless recovery" should consider this: Our actual prospects are worse than that term suggests. The initial expansion we may already be experiencing will be notable not for a lack of new jobs, as the phrase "jobless recovery" suggests, but for substantial, continued job losses. by OutloudOpinion

The Network: How a map can prevent the next financial crisis. 10.9.09

Daniel Altman — Fri, 9 Oct 2009 14:22:41 -0400

The shock of the financial meltdown has had congressional committees scrambling for their gavels for the better part of a year. Politicians have been discussing how to make sure that such a near-cataclysm never happens again, and, for the most part, they've focused on the need for new regulation. by OutloudOpinion

One Issue Where Obama Really Is Winning 10.8.09

Barron YoungSmith — Thu, 8 Oct 2009 11:31:20 -0400

Among President Obama's attempts to pass far-reaching liberal legislation this year, his signature plan to overhaul the way students receive college loans has probably received the least attention. Yet, right now, it's arguably the issue on which Obama is closest to achieving an unvarnished success. by OutloudOpinion

Washington Diarist: The Celebrity Death Trend 10.8.09

Leon Wieseltier — Thu, 8 Oct 2009 11:30:05 -0400

Happy is the eye that saw all this, but our souls were anguished by what our ear heard." This is the refrain of an ancient poem in the liturgy of Yom Kippur, a lament for its author's belatedness. by OutloudOpinion

Let Them Vote 10.7.09

The Editors of The New Republic — Wed, 7 Oct 2009 19:06:27 -0400

President Obama and his allies in Congress are doing everything they can to rally 60 senators behind health care reform. But, for one red-state senator, even 60 "yes" votes won't do. by OutloudOpinion

Deep Denial: Why the Holocaust Still Matters 10.7.09

Michael B. Oren — Wed, 7 Oct 2009 19:04:39 -0400

Toughened by their frontier ethos, steeled by serial wars, Israelis are not prone to flattery. Most, in fact, eschew using the closest equivalent to the Hebrew word for flattery--chanupa--in favor of the derisive Yiddish-derivative, firgun. by OutloudOpinion

Pop Fiction: How to demagogue health care and feel good in the morning. 10.6.09

Jonathan Chait — Tue, 6 Oct 2009 20:23:40 -0400

On the first day of the Senate Finance Committee's hearings on health care reform, Senator Jon Kyl, a fiery free-market fundamentalist, assailed reform as a "stunning assault on liberty." by OutloudOpinion

UPDATED: The Final Five 10.6.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 6 Oct 2009 20:18:16 -0400

Sometime soon, maybe this week, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote on the health care reform bill it spent the last two weeks debating. Inside and outside the committee, people following this process more closely than I am say the bill is likely to pass. But it's not yet a sure thing. by OutloudOpinion

Kabul Notes: A journey into Afghanistan 10.6.09

Bernard-Henri Levy — Tue, 6 Oct 2009 20:16:01 -0400

Return to Afghanistan with a group of journalists, escorted by the French defense minister, Hervé Morin. A limited view: We only see valleys in Surobi and Kapisa. But an invaluable glimpse, nevertheless, because it counters what is heard almost everywhere. by OutloudOpinion

Stocked Exchange: Did the Senate just kill a crucial ingredient of health care reform? 10.5.09

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 5 Oct 2009 20:34:15 -0400

Ten years from now, if health care reform is a boondoggle, you might be able to trace that failure back to a decision in the wee hours of last week's Senate Finance Committee hearings.
by OutloudOpinion

Win The War: Should Obama let Afghanistan trample his domestic agenda? 10.5.09

E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Mon, 5 Oct 2009 20:31:50 -0400

At a White House dinner with a group of historians at the beginning of the summer, Robert Dallek, a shrewd student of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, offered a chilling comment to President Obama.
by OutloudOpinion

The Goldstone Factor: The unintended consequences of the UN's latest indictment of Israel. 10.2.09

Yossi Klein Halevi — Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:16:52 -0400

The Israeli reactions to the Goldstone report on the Gaza war of January 2009 have focused, understandably, on its outrageous omissions and distortions and one-sided judgments, as well as on the moral corruption of the report's sponsor, the UN's Human Rights Commission.
by OutloudOpinion

What Should African-American Studies Students Learn? 10.2.09

John McWhorter — Fri, 2 Oct 2009 11:15:59 -0400

While this year has become best known as the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock, it was also forty years ago that the first African-American Studies department was established, at San Francisco State University. Forty-one fall semesters later, there are hundreds of such departments. Has what they teach evolved with the march of time?
by OutloudOpinion

Benched: Why the Supreme Court is irrelevant. 10.1.09

Barry Friedman — Thu, 1 Oct 2009 14:12:19 -0400

The most-watched case of the Supreme Court's last term, which ended in June, invited the justices to hold unconstitutional a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
by OutloudOpinion

So How Does The Senate Climate Bill Stack Up To The House Version? 10.1.09

Bradfor Plumer — Thu, 1 Oct 2009 14:11:13 -0400

All told, the draft Senate climate bill that John Kerry and Barbara Boxer unveiled today looks awfully similar to the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House back in June. Everything you've read about that earlier bill, griping and cheering alike, basically still applies.
by OutloudOpinion

Rich Dem, Poor Dem: Class war in Obamaland. 9.30.09

Thomas B. Edsall — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:19:03 -0400

The health care debate has exposed the ideological tension in Barack Obama’s political coalition between moderates and liberals. But it has also offered hints of how another, less obvious divide built into the Democratic majority could wreak havoc on the administration during the years to come.
by OutloudOpinion

How Legitimate Is the G20? 9.30.09

Simon Johnson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:18:02 -0400

Strong advocates of our new G20 process are convinced that it will bring legitimacy to international economic policy discussions, rule-making, and crisis interventions. Certainly, it’s better than the G7/G8 pretending to run things--after all, who elected them?
by OutloudOpinion

The Plot Thins: The most important questions about the Zazi case, answered.9.29.09

James Gordon Meek — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:27:32 -0400

And so since September 14, all anybody's been asking me are questions about a young Afghan immigrant named Najibullah Zazi and his alleged involvement in the first Al Qaeda cell uncovered in America since the 9/11 attacks.
by OutloudOpinion

Going Dutch: Life after the public option. 9.29.09

Jonathan Cohn — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:26:06 -0400

"You can’t really have reform without a public option," former governor Howard Dean, a prominent public-option advocate, said recently. "If you really want to fix the health care system, you’ve got to give the public the choice of having such an option."
by OutloudOpinion

The "Lifestyle" Taboo 9.29.09

Bradford Plumer — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:24:57 -0400

It's not considered the height of political savvy here in the United States to point out that European lifestyles are greener than our own. Don't expect that line in an Obama speech anytime soon.
by OutloudOpinion

The End of the Beginning of Obama's Middle East Strategy. 9.28.09

Robert Satloff — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:36:54 -0400

With apologies to Winston Churchill, President Obama may not have presided over the beginning of the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last week in New York, but he seems finally to have marked the end of an embarrassing beginning to his Middle East diplomacy.
by OutloudOpinion

Some Revolution: Why the 2010 election will not be a repeat of 1994. 9.28.09

Ed Kilgore — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:35:46 -0400

In political circles, Republicans and Democrats alike have begun comparing the 2010 election with the "revolution" that handed both the House and the Senate to the GOP in 1994. But how applicable is that analogy, really?
by OutloudOpinion

A Just Withdrawal: Our moral obligation to the Iraqis we leave behind. 9.25.09

Michael Walzer and Nicolaus Mills — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:26:36 -0400

The headlines of the last few months make it clear that there are going to be no free passes for America when it comes to getting its troops out of Iraq. The recent bombing of a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, like the internal warfare in Sunni-dominated Anbar Provice, shows how many Iraqi security problems persist.
by OutloudOpinion

The Death (and Life) of Conservatism 9.25.09

Damon Linker — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:25:17 -0400

ne of the best lines in Sam Tanenhaus’s wonderful little book on The Death of Conservatism comes in its opening chapter. Surveying intellectual life on the right in the opening months of the Obama administration, Tanenhaus concludes that too many conservative intellectuals “recognize no distinction between analysis and advocacy, or between the competition of ideas and the naked struggle for power.”
by OutloudOpinion

Canadian Attack on Downtown DC Foiled 9.25.09

Jordan Michael Smith — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:23:55 -0400

For Lieutenant-Colonel Doug Martin, the idea was perfect. The Canadian military attaché wanted to set up a mock Afghan village in front of the Canadian embassy in downtown DC. There would be simulated IED blasts, armed soldiers, and Afghan actors faking critical wounds. And the blasts would first go off in the middle of the day, just in time for lunch.
by OutloudOpinion

Hawk Down: Why Joe Biden flipped on Afghanistan. 9.24.09

Michael Crowley — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:24:47 -0400

With the 2008 presidential campaign in full swing two summers ago, Joe Biden, then making his own bid for the White House, ridiculed Barack Obama on a momentous issue: Afghanistan.
by OutloudOpinion

Dangerous Liaisons: Should we be afraid of Venezuela's nuclear ambitions? 9.24.09

Nima Gerami — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:17:46 -0400

For years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez cast himself as President Bush's arch-nemesis, repeatedly accusing the Bush administration of plotting to overthrow the Venezuelan government and to assassinate him.
by OutloudOpinion

Qaddafi at the U.N. 9.24.09

Richard Just — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:16:32 -0400

Today was arguably the United Nations at its best. I know that sounds odd, since the day was dominated by the insane musings of Muammar Qaddafi.
by OutloudOpinion

Is the GOP Overreaching On Health Care? 9.23.09

Jonathan Chait — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:00:19 -0400

Yesterday I wrote about the Republican strategy of unabated opposition to health care reform. Thinking about it some more, I really wonder if the Republican party is making a long-term policy blunder here.
by OutloudOpinion

Should Israelis Be Declaring Victory After Today's Summit? 9.23.09

Shmuel Rosner — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:55:37 -0400

After much anticipation of this week's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, early reports indicate that President Obama spent most of his time "sternly urging Israeli and Palestinian leaders to do more to make Mideast peace talks possible."
by OutloudOpinion

Bottom Line 9.21.09

Jonathan Cohn — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:50:53 -0400

Can Democrats actually come up with a way to pay for health care reform?
by OutloudOpinion

TRB: Left-Handed Compliment 9.21.09

Jonathan Chait — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:42:37 -0400

Why can't liberals accept victory?
by OutloudOpinion

Pssst. Finance Isn't the Only Relevant Committee. 9.17.09

Jonathan Cohn — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:05:57 -0400

So much has been said about Max Baucus and the Finance Committee for the last few days that it's easy to forget that four other committees are supposed to have a say in the matter.
by OutloudOpinion

The TNR Q&A: Michael Shifter: Are we facing an arms race in Latin America? 9.17.09

Ben Bernstein — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:57:56 -0400

Tensions are rising across South America this month as Venezuela signed three oil deals with Iran and a 2-billion-dollar arms deal with Russia, causing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to speculate about a possible arms race.
by OutloudOpinion

Saudi Arabia Kicks Obama in the Groin Again 9.17.09

Marty Peretz — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:56:48 -0400

Maybe you haven't noticed. But Saudi Arabia hasn't at all played according to Barack Obama's script. Now, frankly, that doesn't surprise me. As you already know, I am a skeptic. And especially skeptical about Saudi intentions vis-a-vis Israel. Still, don't count on their intentions towards the Palestinians, either.
by OutloudOpinion

How Will the Senate Combine Max Baucus's Health Care Bill With All the Others? 9.17.09

Elise Foley — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:55:40 -0400

Max Baucus finally unveiled the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill today, meaning that all five congressional committees with jurisdiction over health care reform will soon have proposals on the table. So what happens then?
by OutloudOpinion

Fiasco Why is Obama repating Bush's Iraq mistakes...in Afghanistan? 9.16.09

Michael Crowley — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:00:45 -0400

"Military advice is being influenced on a political level,"
by OutloudOpinion