If you're being charitable, about the only good thing you can say about the Bush 43 era can be summed up in a pithy slogan.

'George W. Bush: At Least He Was Never Impeached.

I should trademark that. It'll probably form the linchpin for the inevitable attempts by a certain segment of the Winger crowd to rehabilitate Dubya 20 years down the pipe.

Posted at September 29, 2008 11:12 PM in response to The Unmentionable Question

i much preferred christopher ward myself, aka mr. allanah myles, aka charles de camembert

Posted at June 25, 2008 9:16 PM in response to John Roberts nostalgic?

Please don't feed the trolls.

As to the substance of bSerious' very thoughtful post, a few observations...

It indeed is jarring, albeit not surprising, that there are still people in 2008 who are still unwilling to vote for a presidential candidate just because they are black. But I think you'll find that as group, this is probably a shrinking voting bloc.

Cock-eyed optimist that I am, I suspect that 50 years down the road, that particular voting bloc may have shrunk so much that journalists may have trouble finding enough people to put together a story about such things.

That's not to say there isn't a long row to hoe. I got an insight into just how far a few years back when the woman who is now my wife and had to made a road trip through the U.S. Midwest (we're Canadians. Never having done such a roadtrip with a passenger who happened to be a few shades browner than me, I was quite taken by the extra-attentive treatment we received from Customs. Notwithstanding the thorough search of our car and interview by the two border guys, it was on the way back, when the big-assed pick-up truck with the license plate 'ARYAN' passed us in North Dakota that my travelling companion and I decided to dispense with our shortcut itinerary and turned north to the nearest border crossing. True story.

But here's another story--Having grown up in the '80s, I remember it as a far more racially polarized time than now. At least where I grew up, there was quite a bit less socializing, dating, etc. that went on between kids from different ethnicities. Nowadays, it seems like that's far less an issue for kids, and in a strange way, that sort of feeds back, as adults have to confront their own prejudices whenever their kids bring home their friends.

The point of these two stories is to illustrate I think there is progress, but still a long way go. With respect to Obama, the question becomes whether that particular portion of the electorate is significantly large enough and inclined to vote to swing the outcome.

It's interesting. Obama's early appeal to a lot of people was this notion of 'transcending' the identity politics of the Bush/Clinton/Bush era, and particularly the politics of race. Certainly that was something that I found very appealing about Obama. But race ended up coming back to the forefront.

I think the appetite among the electorate for that transcendence remains, but it's probably a tough concept to campaign on, because when you get right down to it, it's a time-consuming process, with progress measured over decades.

Depending on your point of view, the outcome of the general election may be one of those moments that determines whether the U.S. moved a hundred miles forward, or two hundred.

Then again, I am a cock-eyed optimist...

Posted at May 12, 2008 9:26 AM in response to Obama and racism. READ.

There is something in Obama's style vaguely akin to watching judo or aikido. He has a knack for seeming to be on his heels, then putting his opponent on his back.
Funny, funny, funny. As I watch this, Hilldawg's on CNN and the anchors are saying she's 'dealing with the fallout from the "bitter" comment.'
How strange to see this less than a day after hearing what's-her-face on Lou Dobbs going on about 'Obama's attack on small-town America.'

Judo...CHOP!

Posted at April 12, 2008 10:25 AM in response to Obama Just Won

One of the problems you encounter when employing the kitchen sink strategy is that, if your adversary remains standing, there's nothing left to throw.

Posted at March 21, 2008 7:28 PM in response to Endgame Signals?

Excuse my tardiness in getting on this one, but in response to Stirling's early question, I think a do over in FL and MI will likely amount to a wash.

Obama will probably continue to pull lopsided margins with African-American voters, a huge constituency in Detroit, big enough to probably offset any organizational/fundraising/endorsement advantage Clinton might see from the UAW there.

Florida would likely go into the Clinton column, since it skews towards retirees, Hispanics and Jewish voters.

Posted at March 14, 2008 11:23 AM in response to Obama's Michigan Co-Chair Suggests Agreement On Redo Of Primary Is Likely

I personally like Oblinton, because it sounds a bit like some bad Irish pub chain.

Posted at March 11, 2008 12:13 AM in response to The latest addition to the American political lexicon?

gjh, you're right, but regrettably Canadian scandals don't generally get much attention paid to them south of the U.S.' northern border.

However, I did make a rather extensive blog post about the context in which the Cadman affair came to pass on my TPM blog, so check it out.

Posted at February 29, 2008 11:40 PM in response to Canadian News Station Stands By Obama-NAFTA Story, Names Aide

fractal, you may not be far off the mark. having spent a little time in the media biz up here, i can state with a fair bit of certainty that the industry (for the most part) is tiny, incestuous and altogether too cozy with gummint for my liking.

Posted at February 29, 2008 12:48 PM in response to Canadian News Station Stands By Obama-NAFTA Story, Names Aide

Yes, the post is true, Nieddu. Now if you'd only read it.

CTVGlobemedia sold a bunch of TV stations to Rogers.

Note--Rogers Media is a division of Rogers Communications. CTVGlobemedia is ... well, it's CTVGlobemedia. Another company entirely...Otherwise, it would be paying itself $137.5 million to sell itself 10 TV stations.

Posted at February 29, 2008 12:12 PM in response to Canadian News Station Stands By Obama-NAFTA Story, Names Aide