In my latest for the Guardian, I write that liberal commentators were wowed by Obama’s speech, while conservatives would prefer to attack Obama himself.
Tag: Guardian
What will we think tomorrow?
Tonight, at least, it seems clear that Barack Obama delivered a terrific speech. How good? Not to be a weasel, but I think it’s too soon to say. His decision to be his own attack dog was an interesting one. Was it smart?
There was lots of soaring rhetoric, of course, as well as more specifics than we’re accustomed to hearing from him. He almost certainly got what he needed this week, despite the pundits’ obsession with the Clintons.
I’ll be scanning media reaction early tomorrow morning for the Guardian. Also tomorrow, I’ll be on “Beat the Press” on WGBH-TV (Channel 2) at 7 p.m. for its convention wrap-up.
A presidential makeover
In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that two contrasting speeches by Michelle Obama show she understands what works in Chicago doesn’t work on the national stage. Unfortunately for Democrats, the Obamas’ efforts to reinvent themselves risk making them seem inauthentic and leave them vulnerable to Republican attack.
A media scandal that wasn’t?
Remember the Scott Beauchamp scandal? Beauchamp was the soldier who wrote a series of essays for The New Republic documenting some pretty atrocious behavior involving him and his comrades who were serving in Iraq, including running over dogs and playing with a human skull.
As you may recall, Beauchamp was discredited after he admitted to “exaggerations and falsehoods.” Except that Spencer Ackerman, in an explosive story for Radar, now says Beauchamp never made any such admission, and that TNR editor Franklin Foer threw Beauchamp overboard in an attempt to get the magazine’s right-wing critics off his back.
Ackerman admits that there’s bad blood between him and Foer, and that Foer would not be interviewed for the Radar piece. But Ackerman has a lot of on-the-record material backing up his claims. Fascinating stuff.
As I wrote for the Guardian a year ago this week, the Beauchamp scandal gave war supporters an excuse to ignore a dauntingly well-documented report on ugly behavior by American troops that had been published by The Nation.
Now it looks as though the real Beauchamp scandal may have been that The New Republic allowed his reputation to be sacrificed for no good reason.
Nothing on the TNR Web site so far.
Kerry and Romney for vice president
In my latest for the Guardian, I try to make the case that John Kerry and Mitt Romney make the most sense as running mates for the Democratic and Republican tickets.
Whole Foods and “cow splatter”
In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that if you’re going to pay twice as much to shop at Whole Foods, the least you can expect is hamburger that doesn’t come from an industrial processing plant that’s been in trouble with the government for years.
An ugly smear is about to have its day
In my latest for the Guardian, I deconstruct a hateful lie about Barack Obama — that his support for abortion rights is so extreme that it extends to infanticide. And I warn that this lie is starting to make its way into mainstream discourse.
As always, the first casualty
In my latest for the Guardian, I consider the plight of Zoriah Miller, a freelance photographer who’s been banned from covering U.S. Marines in Iraq because his images are too graphic. And I argue that the Bush administration’s ongoing censorship of the war’s photographic record is giving John McCain an unfair advantage.
Foreign policy
In my latest for the Guardian, I take a look at “The Changing Newsroom,” a new study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, and conclude that the authors get it half-right: metropolitan newspapers aren’t dumping foreign and national news because readers don’t want it, but because they’re getting it elsewhere.
More on that Obama cover
In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that the Obama campaign and its supporters on the left have made way too much of the New Yorker’s satirical cover depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as flag-burning, Osama bin Laden-loving terrorists.
Which puts me at odds with Jon Keller, who included me in a piece on the controversy last night on WBZ-TV (Channel 4).