10 More Questions John McCain Will Never Be Asked

(April 19, 2008)

In the wake of Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous' abominable performance in the recent ABC Democratic debate in Philadelphia, I created a list of 10 debate questions John McCain will never be asked. Now, as it turns out, this Sunday's guest on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous is none other than Arizona Senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Here, then, are 10 more questions John McCain will never be asked...

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10 Debate Questions John McCain Will Never Be Asked

(April 17, 2008)

While the liberal blogosphere and media critics alike are fuming over the deplorable gotcha-fest that was the ABC Democratic debate yesterday in Philadelphia, conservative talking heads are positively ecstatic. In the New York Times, David Brooks called the questions on lapel pins and the Weather Underground "excellent." The excreable Michelle Malkin snarked, "How dare they explore questions of character, truthfulness, and judgment?" And over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey offered "kudos to ABC News" while noting "John McCain has to feel grateful not to be included." Here, then, are 10 debate questions John McCain will never be asked...

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From Maverick to Prostitute: The Untold Story of John McCain

(March 26, 2008)

As much as anything else, presidential campaigns are won and lost by the media narratives that rightly or wrongly come to define a candidate. In the case of Republican nominee John McCain, the seemingly unshakable narrative of the political "maverick" could not be further off the mark. At almost every turn, McCain in his eternal quest for the White House has reversed long-held positions, compromised core principles and swallowed his pride in order to curry favor with both the leading lights of the conservative movement and right-wing Republican primary voters...

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John McCain: Unfit for Command

(March 10, 2008)

Lost in Hillary Clinton's fierce barrage against Barack Obama's national security experience is the inescapable conclusion about John McCain's own suitability as Commander-in-Chief. McCain's mistake-filled record, questionable judgment, calamitous misreading of history, nonchalance about American casualties and notorious short fuse all combine to make him a dangerous choice to lead an America at war. Simply put, John McCain is unfit for command...

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That's Entertainment: Politics as Theater in Campaign '08 (Presentation)

(February 5, 2008)

Politics must now compete with an oversupply of entertainment and information sources, from television, radio, books, newspapers and magazines to web sites, blogs, online video, Podcasts and more. The result is a 21st century "infotainment complex" where politics, news, opinion and entertainment merge. Politics itself is now entertainment, part drama and part competition in a passion play where confrontation, conflict and good versus evil rule the day. The journalistic search for objective truth is replaced by the presentation of ideological clashes with two - and only two - sides. This talk examines the disturbing implications for campaign '08 and American democracy itself when a well-informed citizenry devolves into what Al Gore deemed the "well amused audience"...

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Bush's M.C. Escher Strategy for Iraq

(November 30, 2007)

More and more, President Bush's strategy in Iraq resembles an M.C. Escher illustration. Like the hands drawing each other or the elegant depiction of stairways that cannot possibly meet, the military progress of the U.S. surge is producing an image of a future Iraq that, while glorious to behold, can never be built. The very American alliances with Sunni tribal leaders that are reducing sectarian violence and the threat from Al Qaeda also threaten to undermine the Shiite majority government in Baghdad...

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The Party of Hate

(November 12, 2007)

In Washington, House Minority Leader John Boehner is struggling to rebrand a downtrodden and disheartened Republican Party in time for the 2008 elections. It's no wonder. Its agenda stymied and burdened by an unpopular war and an even less popular President, the GOP is being pulverized in the polls. And with its evangelical base splintered and big business supporters jumping ship, the only message seemingly uniting Republicans is disdain - of immigrants, of blacks, of gay Americans and above all, Muslims. The GOP is now the Party of Hate...

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The Unpology: How Republicans Never Say They're Sorry

(August 18, 2007)

In 1997, Seinfeld introduced Americans to the "unvitation." The unvitation enables the cynical person to seemingly satisfy the demands of social etiquette by extending an invitation to an event or gathering which they know the recipient will - or must - reject. As we fast forward to 2007, Americans are witnessing Republicans perfect a similar act of social hypocrisy and cynicism: the Unpology. Facing recriminations for ethical failings, racist behavior, sexist statements or outright criminality, this new generation of Republican wrong-doers delivers the facade of apology by uttering obligatory words of remorse devoid of actual regret, contrition - or even an admission of guilt...

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Up or Down Vote: Death of a GOP Talking Point

(July 22, 2007)

On Thursday morning, July 19th, the beloved GOP talking point "up or down vote" was officially declared dead. Its demise was little noticed in the aftermath of the Senate Republicans' successful all-night filibuster to block the Reed-Levin bill seeking to begin U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq. "Up or down vote" was killed by a desperate Republican Party trying to obstruct Democratic accomplishments at any cost in advance of the 2008 elections. And so far, the GOP seems to be getting away with the crime...

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SiCKO Required Reading: U.S. Health Care by the Numbers

(June 29, 2007)

Perrspectives has reached into its archives and combed through other recent research to produce a quick look at the U.S. health care morass by the numbers. The summary below includes comparisons of the American health care system relative to other countries and between the states, data on the uninsured, rising health care costs, the woes of Medicare and Medicaid and more...

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The Minimum Wage in Red and Blue

(January 10, 2007)

In Washington this week, the Democratic-controlled House takes on the first minimum wage increase since 1997. But while the federal government has blocked help for 13 million working Americans (9.8% of the workforce) for a decade, many states have already moved forward with their own minimum wage hikes. And as you might imagine, few of them happened to vote for George W. Bush for president...

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Iraq and the 7 Habits of Highly Defective Presidents

(December 17, 2006)

Since he first stepped into the Oval Office, much has been made about George W. Bush as America's CEO, our first MBA President. In the wake of the Iraq Study Group report, the nation has been eagerly awaiting President Bush's now-delayed new strategy with the baited breath surrounding a major new product announcement. But as is becoming increasingly clear, when it comes to Iraq, George W. Bush the MBA President is managing the war like a failed business...

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Divide, Suppress and Conquer: The GOP's 25% Strategy for 2006

(November 6, 2006)

As Tuesday's vote approaches, Democrats are buoyantly optimistic about their prospects for retaking control of Congress. President Bush is wildly unpopular. His handling of Iraq, the election's dominant issue, is backed by less than a third of the electorate. On issue after issue, voters across the United States support Democratic positions. And in generic Congressional polls, a majority of Americans consistently prefer Democrats over Republicans. Almost none of which matters for the Republican braintrust. For the GOP, 2006 isn't a popularity contest. The Republican strategy for victory hinges on turning out their base while ensuring potential Democratic voters stay home. Call it "Divide, Suppress and Conquer"...

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The Amazing Race Card

(September 13, 2006)

There's an old saying that a gaffe is what results when a politician inadvertently tells the truth. By that standard, then, the Republican Party must be confessing its deeply held beliefs when it comes to race. After all, despicable racial slurs like Arnold Schwarzenegger's lecture on black and Latino blood and George Allen's MacacaGate are only the latest signs that racial bigotry is not the exception in the GOP, but perhaps the rule itself...

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Homegrown Terrorism in the U.S. and Europe

(August 13, 2006)

Commentators of all political stripes are too quick to draw conclusions about the comparative dangers of radical Islam within European and American Muslim communities. Predictably, conservatives use terror plots in England, clashes in France, train bombings in Spain and cartoon outrage in Denmark to attack the economic stagnation and social rigidity of Europe, while lauding the opportunity and equality of American society. In turn, liberals see multi-culturalism, affirmative action and group politics as a safety valve that provides American minorities political expression, electoral muscle and social standing missing in Europe. The reality is much more complicated than that, defying such facile comparisons and ready morality plays...

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The Republican Rap Sheet

(June 20, 2006)

This weekend, Democrats in Congress moved quickly to oust Louisiana Representative William Jefferson from his seat on the powerful House Way and Means Committee. Facing strong opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi showed that Democrats would be quick to punish ethical transgressors within their ranks. The contrast with the Republican culture of corruption could not more stark...

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Iran, Bush and the Second Coming

(May 1, 2006)

While the differences between Washington and Tehran are threatening and growing, there are eerie similarities between presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad and their respective fundamentalist followers. For each, the strikingly analogous views regarding religious prophecy, second comings and the end of times for their respective Christian and Shiite eschatologies may be pushing Ahmadinejad and Bush inexorably towards war...

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The Republicans' Constitutional Crisis

(February 20, 2006)

From the beginning, the administration's amen corner has aggressive claimed that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and the wartime Commander-in-Chief powers give President Bush the statutory and constitutional basis for sidestepping the FISA process for domestic electronic surveillance. But most in the GOP are downright sheepish when it comes to the third argument that logically flows from their first two: FISA itself is unconstitutional. Their trepidation is well founded; as a matter of law and of politics, an attack by Republicans on the constitutionality of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is bound to fail...

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Bush League Economy

(December 8, 2005)

Nothing, apparently not even the growing opposition to the war in Iraq, frustrates President Bush and the Republican Party more than Americans' consistently negative view of the economy. That's because right now, the American people aren't focused on economic growth; they're concerned about economic insecurity. Call it the Perrspectives Insecurity Index...

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Getting Drafty: A Hybrid Model of National Service

(June 26, 2005)

The time for a collective free ride on national service is over. Our overcommitted American military is stretched to the breaking point, with a terrible toll and unfair demands on active duty troops and reservists alike...Our growing national security needs simply can’t – and shouldn’t – be met by a volunteer American military. The time has come for new, expanded American armed forces. Combining an enlarged professional fighting force with a new conscript-based Civil Defense Force (CDF), our new hybrid military would be prepared to face the challenges of the next decade. And by reintroducing national service, the United States might actually reinstill democratic values of shared defense and sacrifice across all sections of American society..

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Schiavo, Mill and the Culture of Living

(March 20, 2005)

Ours is – or rather should be – a culture that sees preserving individual autonomy as vital to liberty. Call it “the Culture of Living.” It is a culture that values the privacy, personal freedom and unique path to happiness of each American. A woman’s body and the decisions she and her partner make regarding their reproductive choices are no one’s business but their own, and certainly not the government’s. A Culture of Living does not condemn the terminally ill to the enslavement of their own bodies. And that culture certainly should respect the decision a woman freely made 15 years ago as to how and whether her life, no longer free, shall be continued...

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The Myth of the Bush Doctrine

(March 9, 2005)

In triumphant and self-congratulatory tones, the President and his allies are taking credit for the sweeping reform throughout the Middle East and claiming the vindication of the "Bush Doctrine.". Unfortunately, there is no such thing as the Bush Doctrine. Or more accurately, there are many Bush Doctrines. It is whatever you need to it to be. It is the foreign policy hedonism of President Bush and the conservative ascendancy: if it feels good, do it...

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Framed: Lakoff's Dubious Speech Therapy for Democrats

(March 1, 2005)

In the wake of November’s disaster for Democrats, liberals and progressives of all stripes have been seeking guidance and comfort in the work of cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff. All the rage among Democrats, his book Don’t Think of An Elephant has introduced the term “framing” into their daily lexicon. For devastated Democrats trying to plot their return from the wilderness, Lakoff has taken on almost mythic status. And that’s not a good thing...

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The Opt Out Society: The GOP Threat to National Unity and the American Social Contract

(June 15, 2003; updated February 9, 2004))

American national unity itself that is under attack by the GOP during a time of war, and that presents Democrats with their best chance for to return from the political wilderness.. The American people are being divided and splintered by a Republican public philosophy of market worship, the privatization or abandonment of traditional government roles and services, and a radical individualism. The Bush philosophy represents an all-out assault on common national purpose in the United States. Government not only can't solve problems, it has no moral claim on its citizens' participation in a shared national effort to try...

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The War President?

(February 20, 2004)

George W. Bush claims that he is a "war president." There’s only one problem: wartime presidents call on their citizens to sacrifice. From Lincoln (“until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword”) to Churchill (“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”) and JFK (“ask not what your country can do for you”, “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship”), true war leaders call on their people to sacrifice lives, livelihoods, personal freedom, and national treasure to bring ultimate victory in a long, painful struggle over the enemy...

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The End of the Unilateral Moment: Five Global Challenges for a New American Internationalism

(June 18, 2004)

With American unilateralism disgraced and discredited, the United States must move on to a new internationalism to meet the five global challenges of the 21st century. In a time of global terrorist threats, the U.S. must rebuild its alliances, partnerships, and most of all, its reputation, to help ensure its security. In a time of new competition from the EU, China, India and others in the global economy, the U.S. must skillfully manage economic transition to maximize the American standard of living. At a time of rapidly growing Chinese economic and geo-political power, the United States must ensure that competition does not become conflict...

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Cognitive Dissonance, Terrorism and 9/11

(March 30, 2004)

The massive national security disaster of September 11, 2001 was not primarily a failure of planning, bureaucratic coordination, or vigilance by either the Clinton or Bush administrations. Instead, the root cause of the American failure on 9/11 was psychological. That is, the American national security establishment simply could not absorb, process, and filter data regarding threats so fundamentally at odds with its post-Cold War mind set and conceptual framework. Perhaps more than anything else, the U.S. calamity of September 11 can be attributed to cognitive dissonance...

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Google's Gag Order: An Internet Giant Threatens Free Speech

(June 20, 2004)

There is no doubt that Google has joined the elite group of culture-changing brands.  Unfortunately, Google may be playing a darker, more sinister role in American society: corporate censor. On June 15, the Google Adwords team discontinued all advertisements placed by Perrspectives.com due to “unacceptable content” on the site that includes “language that advocates against an individual, group or organization.”  There can be no doubt that the current Google editorial guidelines, evenly applied, would bar almost any newspaper, magazine, opinion journal, political party, advocacy campaign or even religious organization from advertising on its site. And that puts Google dangerously at odds with core American values of free speech and assembly...

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States' Blights: Why the Rights of Gay Couples Can't Be Left to the States

(March 2, 2004)

In 2004, John Kerry and John Edwards said the issue of same-sex marriage should be left to the states.  That may have been playing it safe, but unfortunately it’s bad public policy. While the states have traditionally regulated marriage. their record of recognizing and protecting individual rights and personal privacy is not a happy one. From slavery and Jim Crow segregation to voting rights and the most private of sexual choices, state constitutions and legislatures have trampled on the core rights of racial, ethnic and other minorities. Supreme Court rulings in cases such as Dred Scott (1857) and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) are a stain on the American ideals of human freedom and equality that took a bloody civil war and a hundred year civil rights struggle to overcome...

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