The Viability of Obama (It’s the Sanity, Stupid)

After their experience with Bush, Americans are looking for a candidate who exudes sanity. (Is “it’s the sanity, stupid” a possible slogan?). It’s not a high standard: please, just don’t be crazy. Obama possesses this un-crazy quality in much greater quantity than any other candidate in the Democratic or Republican field. It’s part of his sincere, calm, and charismatic demeanor. That he is an African American with these qualities makes him a more, not less, formidable candidate.

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Wolfowitz

“I now direct you to agree to a proposal which includes the following terms and conditions,” Mr. Wolfowitz wrote. “You should accept immediately her offer to be detailed to an outside institution of her choosing while retaining bank salary and benefits.”

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The British Soldiers

Iit is scary that the right wing of the United States and Britain take Iranian propaganda more to heart (by blaming the obviously coerced soldiers and trying to guess whether they look tortured enough to be complying with the Iranians) than the fact that the Iranians violated the Geneva conventions in coercing the British soldiers and putting them on camera.

That’s because the right wing don’t themselves take these conventions seriously themselves; they are more concerned with humiliating the enemy and making sure the enemy doesn’t humiliate us; but of course, the premise of this humiliation is the value of might over right — you can’t be humiliated by the tactics the Iranians used here unless at some level you admire their power.

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