Just watched the first episode of (the new) Battlestar Galactica. I wanted to try it, but assumed it would keep my interest for only a few episodes. My wife only agreed to watch because she is a gracious and generous woman. For the first thirty minutes, she made snide remarks. At the sixty minute mark she asked me if an hour had really gone by. At the eighty minute mark, I told her we had to go to sleep because we’re going to California tomorrow. She begged for just ten more minutes....

Sonny already plugged Matt Labash’s great article about America’s most notorious mayor. I second that. The strangest thing I learned about Barry was that he came within one year of finishing a PhD in chemistry. He was an Eagle Scout. He recited poems in church. He went to college, and stopped one year short of getting his doctorate in chemistry, quitting to join the civil rights movement. “In chemistry, there’s order,” he says wistfully. “In politics, there’s...

George Will called for an end to counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, provoking a flood of responses from conservatives. The Wall Street Journal has given their opinions top billing. Fred Kagan writes that the future of Pakistan depends on Afghanistan. Max Boot reminds us that we already tried to win on the cheap — that’s why it’s such a mess today. Dan Senor and Peter Wehner call on Republicans to support Obama even when the going gets tough. Finally, Michael O’Hanlon and...

In so many words, Andrew Exum (aka Abu Muqawama) describes himself as a hesitant, hedging, uncertain and humble supporter of the war in Afghanistan. What mystifies him is why Washington is turning so rapidly against the war and why the Obama White House is so afraid of criticism from the left regarding Afghanistan. Andrew also prescribes a measure of humility and uncertaintly for arch-liberal opponents of the war, who have forgotten all too soon how they denounced the surge as a failure and denounced...

I felt some serious deja vu while reading Robert’s post about the hopelessness of our “endless bloody occupation” of Afghanistan. Just two years ago, the conventional wisdom was that there was nothing we could do to salvage our bloody and endless occupation of Iraq. Harry Reid told us “the war is lost” and Barack Obama insisted that sending more troops would accomplish nothing. In his post, Robert links to George Will’s recent column, in which he calls for a...

Why did so many Republican senators have such strong feelings for Ted Kennedy? John Barrasso of Wyoming describes the personal touch that Kennedy had: The day I got sworn into the Senate, June 25, 2007, to my knowledge he [Kennedy] was the only Democrat — well, somebody would have been in the chair presiding — who was there in the chamber for my swearing-in… Later they had a little reception for me and he came to that, and he was the only Democrat there. And he spent a long time...

No, not that ‘C’ word. I’m talking about Chappaquiddick. This weekend, Meet the Press, Face the Nation and This Week all devoted their full broadcasts to fond remembrances of Sen. Kennedy. I was curious whether they would mention the most controversial episode in his long career. On the one hand, a special measure of deference is appropriate for the recently departed. On the other, how can a serious news organization devote an entire broadcast to one man and ignore his flaws? ABC...

KENNEDY NEPHEW: SENATE CONTENDER AND PROUD CHAVISTA. Not only does Jamie Kirchick have a new essay up on Doublethink Online; he also has a new article up at TNR about the warm feelings of Joe Kennedy II for Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. With his uncle’s passing, Joe II is now a leading contender for the open Senate perch in Massachusetts. Here’s the kind of wisdom Joe II might bring to US foreign policy: Kennedy has gone out of his way to defend and even praise Chavez, telling The...

That is the title of Norman Podhoretz’s new book. It won’t be out until September 8th, but the current issue of Commentary presents a symposium on the book, with contributions from prominent Jewish authors, mostly conservatives. Best I can tell from the symposium, the main thrust of Podhoretz’s argument is that American Jews have confused the Torah of Judaism with “the Torah of liberalism”. Authentic Jewish values have been displaced by liberal ideology, masquerading...

Give Chuck Schumer credit. He was trying really, really — yes, really — hard to pretend that the President hasn’t waffled on the public option, backing away from his commitment to liberal reform. Here’s Schumer and David Gregory on Meet the Press: MR. GREGORY: You’re not backing away from [the public option], but there is concern within the Democratic Party that President Obama is backing away. Here was the headline in the New York Post this week that spoke for a...

I’ve been looking for some clarity on our strategy in Afghanistan. The President seems to have one foot on each side of the fence. Now it seems the military brass is a bit confused. Here’s Adm. Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Meet the Press: MR. GREGORY: We’re rebuilding this nation? ADM. MULLEN: To a certain degree there is, there is some of that going on. MR. GREGORY: Is that what the American people signed up for? ADM. MULLEN: No, I’m–right...

Will Inboden ably explores the mystery of what British foreign policy will look like once the Tories take charge (since everyone in London knows the will). Will explains why, from a British perspective, it actually makes a certain amount of sense for the Tories to talk about having a “liberal Conservative” foreign policy.” Still, its contents are more than somewhat vague. Will writes, For all of David Cameron and the Conservatives’ political success in becoming poised to...

It’s been seven years now that Kevin Drum’s been blogging. His story says something great about the blogosphere. Some of the early bloggers were grad students in their pajamas. (Why is everyone looking at me?!?!?) In contrast, Kevin had a successful career in business, then decided to try his hand at blogging in his free time. His good nature, command of details and overall intelligence rapidly brought in a growing audience. Eventually, Kevin accepted an offer from the Washington...

Matt Yglesias asks: If you read accounts of the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, people generally always seem to think that American and Saudi and Pakistani support for the Mujahedeen was an important factor. I don’t see anyone saying “it was all a big waste of time and the same stuff would have happened anyway.” Ask and ye shall receive! Two days after Matt put up his question, Fred Kagan posted a detailed look at the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan. So how important was US support...

The new issue of Foreign Affairs is hot off the presses. Its cover package includes three articles about global warming that are well worth reading. The focus here is entirely on how to solve the problem. This is a discussion of the politics, not the scientific debate behind it. First up is Michael Levi, who provides a very sobering look at how hard it will be for this year’s Copenhagen conference (the successor to Kyoto) to produce meaningful results. Hopes are higher than ever for a breakthrough...

If it doesn’t include a public option. Kevin points out that Blue America has raised almost $200,000 to distribute to Dems who pledge to vote against any reform bill without a public option. Since Kevin’s post this morning, the total has risen to $277,000. Kevin observes, The Blue America money helps make the promise to vote against any bill without a public option more credible. Right now, no one believes it. Everybody thinks that, in the end, liberals will cave and vote for it...

Well, they’re not exactly new ideas. They’re new to me. More importantly, they’re ideas that didn’t seem to make the cut for either Democratic or Republican talking points. Which doesn’t mean they’re good ideas, but at least they’re thought provoking. (Hat tip: david1clark) In June, New Yorker correspondent and practicing physician Atul Gawande profiled the town of McAllen, Texas, which has the honor of having the highest Medicare cost per patient in...

This is a response to Jazz’s post from earlier today. Like Jazz, I am disheartened by the carnage in Afghanistan and the lack of progress we’ve made over the past eight years. But I think Jazz’s call to end the war now is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what US and NATO troops are actually doing in Afghanistan and why. Speaking on Tuesday to the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), the President explained clearly and concisely why we must defeat the Taliban: This is a war...

Jazz linked earlier to the new ABC-WaPo poll results on Afghanistan. I’d like to take a closer look at the data. The Post’s headline reports, Public Opinion in US Turns Against Afghan War. Among all adults, 51 percent now say the war is not worth fighting, up six percentage points since last month and 10 since March. Less than half, 47 percent, say the war is worth its costs. Those strongly opposed (41 percent) outweigh strong proponents (31 percent). Yet strangely, 60 percent approve...

Krugman-itis is terrible. I should know. I used to suffer from it myself. When I was younger, I used to believe that Democrats were always at a disadvantage because they were too honest for their own good. This state of affairs was depressing, but also intoxicating. I believed with all my heart that my party was more honest, more intelligent and more enlightened. So now I empathize with those, like Paul Krugman, who still suffer from the same afflication. In his latest column, Krugman writes, At...

Last week, Christopher Caldwell reviewed Bradley Graham’s new book about Donald Rumsfeld. As soon as I have time to digest 800 pages of Graham’s prose, I’ll let you know what I think of the book. For now, I’ll just say that Caldwell picks up on one of the central challenges of studying Rumsfeld. Washington now dismisses Rumsfeld as a tragically stubborn ideologue. Yet when Rumsfeld took charge of the Pentagon in 2001, at the age of 68, he had an extraordinary career of...

Jon Last sharply questions the Twitter-euphoria generated by recent events in Tehran. In spite of rose-tinted predictions that historians would celebrate Twitter’s liberation of Iran and the beginning of a new era of global politics, the streets are now quiet in Tehran, the result of traditional head-bashing. Jon argues that this overestimation of Twitter’s political influence is very much a product of the Web 2.0/social netorking mindset, which encourages users to see themselves as...

Howard Dean on ABC This Week: If you’re not going to have a public option, don’t pretend you’re doing health care reform. Should Obama take this seriously, or will the Democratic left accept whatever Obama prescribes? In the roundtable discussion after the interview, Peggy Noonan observed, Maybe it would be good for the president if the left got absolutely furious about something. It would be good from the perspective of building Obama’s image as a centrist, but will it cost...

In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Jim Jones confirmed Bob Woodward’s account of the message that Gen. Jones brought to our commanders in Afghanistan: [CHRIS] WALLACE: The new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, reportedly wants more U.S. troops sent to Afghanistan. But according to the Washington Post, you told our top brass in late June that the president was done sending additional troops. And I want to get to the quote. “If there were new requests for force...

The week before last, I pointed out the WaPo’s assessment that Barack Obama “hasn’t included any particularly controversial choices in his first picks” for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In light of medals being given to Ted Kennedy and Desmond Tutu, I wasn’t sure if that was the most accurate description. As it turns out, the Medal winner provoking the most controversy is Mary Robinson, former Irish president and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In response...