US Elections

American Daily: May 23, 2012

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

23 May 2012

• Are conservatives traditional defenders of civil rights? Of course not, says Jon Chait.
• Every murder in DC since 2005, mapped. The geographical divide is stark.
• Obama hasn't gone negative, Dave Weigel says. His 2008 campaign wasn't positive either.
• Why isn't anyone talking about Massachusetts?
• How Hillary Clinton won over the internets.
• We like American music: Eric Church, "Springsteen" (2011)

Print This Post 0 Comments

The Gatsby trailer

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

23 May 2012

I've never come across anyone who shares this opinion, but I didn't have a problem with Baz Luhrmann's use of contemporary pop music in his turn-of-the-20th-Century film Moulin Rouge! In fact, I didn't really have a problem with anything else about the movie — I thought it was a fine, fluffy couple of hours of entertainment. And the pop music worked because the film so determinedly avoided representing reality anyway. In the universe Luhrmann constructed, Parisian dancers could rock out to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in 1900 because spectacle took precedence over historical fact.

The trailer for Luhrmann's new film, an adaptation for The Great Gatsby, is out (it seems to be exclusive to Apple and unembeddable — thanks so much, guys UPDATE: now on YouTube), and, like Moulin Rouge!, it is laden with contemporary music. The effect here, however, is jarring. Gatsby is a story so intrinsically connected with a particular time period, with a style of music so distinctive that it defined the era — the Jazz Age. Hopefully the film itself won't feature Kanye West or dodgy covers of U2.

When Luhrmann's project was first announced, I said that I doubted his ability to effectively tell this most American of stories. The trailer doesn't have me feeling any more optimistic. Gatsby is a subtle and nuanced story set amidst opulence and ostentation. Luhrmann, as is his style, seems to only see the opulence. Maybe this teaser is misleading. But nothing here makes me believe Luhrmann's film will be anything but a mess.

Print This Post 0 Comments

American Daily: May 22, 2012

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

22 May 2012

• Nate Silver introduces the electoral concept of "elastic states."
• Seth Masket compares vampires and politicians.
• Is the Obama campaign's focus on Bain the wrong tactic?
• Josh Marshall has pictures from a vintage anti-JFK colouring book.
• Why are conservatives obsessed with "vetting" Obama?
• We like American music: Violent Femmes, "American Music" (1991)

Print This Post 0 Comments

Chart of the day: Tipping point states

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

22 May 2012

This chart from Nate Silver is a bit old in Internet time (i.e. a few weeks), but it's still great:

Silver explains:

Read More

Print This Post 0 Comments

More on the Obama of conservative imagination

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

22 May 2012

Steve Benen argues that conservatives are trying to fight the 2008 campaign again, but it won't work. Americans know Obama too well now:

Last week, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) took on President Obama's record, arguing, "President Obama hasn't run anything before he was elected President of the United States. Never ran a state, never a business, never ran a lemonade stand."

The focus groups must have loved this, because Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus argued yesterday:

"[N]o matter what David Axelrod may say, President Obama's private business experience hasn't seen the inside of a lemonade stand."

This is a pretty standard criticism for any presidential candidate whose background is legislative work. Recent major-party nominees like John McCain, John Kerry, and Bob Dole — none of whom served as a governor or business leader — faced similar critiques.

But as we've talked about before, these criticisms of Obama's record were made four years ago. Since early 2009, he's been president of the United States during a time of foreign and domestic crises. Obama may not have led a state or a business before getting elected, but he led a nation after getting elected.

I understand the urge the right has to re-examine what they dislike about Barack Obama before he became president, but Benen is right. It won't work. Republicans can criticise Obama for what he's done. They can criticise him for what Americans believe he has done. But they can't credibly criticise him on the grounds of experience any more. As much as they'd like to tee off anew, Republicans are only going to win this election if they play the ball as it lays.

Previously on this topic: here, here, here, and here.

Print This Post 0 Comments

American Daily: May 21, 2012

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

21 May 2012

• How can you tell if you're on the No Fly List?
• A bad economy means an Obama loss, says Jon Chait, and Romney knows it.
• Obama risks underestimating Romney, argues Nick Bryant.
• Why do GOP politicians talk up birtherism? Dave Weigel thinks there's a political factor.
• How far will 30 minutes on public transport get you in an American city?
• We like American music: The National, "Daughters of the SoHo Riots" (2005)

Print This Post 0 Comments

On Obama's use of drone warfare

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

21 May 2012

I don’t love drones. I think there’s definitely room for criticism of how the US government is using them. But here’s the thing:

In 2001, al Qaeda attacked the United States. The administration at the time, supported by Congress, invaded Afghanistan, and then used the attack to justify an invasion of Iraq. The result of these two wars was that huge numbers of foreign civilians died. Also, not much happened to al Qaeda.

When Barack Obama came into power in 2009, he escalated the use of drones but greatly scaled back the two wars the previous administration started. Yes, drones kill civilians, but they kill far fewer civilians than when the US government’s approach to preventing terrorism involved using ground forces to invade foreign countries. This is an improvement!

It’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction. And politics can only ever be about moving in the right direction. By all means, make criticisms of Obama’s use of drone warfare! But also remember the style of warfare that tactic replaced. Critics of the Obama administration seem to have developed a certain amnesia on this front.

Print This Post 0 Comments

American Daily: May 18, 2012

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

18 May 2012

• James Sherk on dodgy unemployment statistics.
• Ten things Marc Ambinder learned from a decade in DC.
• Ezra Klein IDs a new GOP talking point: "spending-driven debt"
• Katy Waldman is sick of the "first ___ president" trope.
• Adam Serwer on Chuck Brown and go-go, the native music of Washington D.C.
• We like American music: In memory of Donna Summer, here's "She Works Hard for the Money" (1983)

Print This Post 0 Comments

Rahm "livid" over Ricketts

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

18 May 2012

At American Review today, I return to a theme I've touched on before: the gulf between conservative perceptions of Barack Obama and those of the general American population. This comes on the heels of a New York Times report revealing that a coterie of Republican strategists were trying to put together an ad campaign using Obama's controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright against the President. Here's the gist of my piece:

The scheme is, according to the Times, still in preliminary stages, and [billionaire donor Joe] Ricketts is yet to approve it. Which is lucky, because as currently consituted, I'm missing the part where it's brutally effective. Jeremiah Wright? Again?

Yet this seems to be a pattern running through Republican attempts to unseat Obama this campaign season. Conservatives are convinced that the President was given a free pass by a napping media in the 2008 campaign. They believe he was insufficiently vetted, and that both reporters and the campaign of Republican nominee John McCain failed to draw the public's attention to parts of Obama's biography that the right considered troubling. After three years in office and with two books penned by the President readily available in stores across the United States, many on the right are still firmly convinced that Obama is a mystery man about whom the American public knows little.

Since my piece went up, the Romney campaign has (wisely) rejected the commercial and Ricketts has distanced himself from the scheme. (The Times stands by its reporting.) Meanwhile, Chicago mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is reportedly furious with Ricketts, whose family owns the Chicago Cubs.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not returning calls from the Ricketts family and is “livid” over a New York Times report that Joe Ricketts commissioned a proposal for a multimillion-dollar ad campaign linking President Obama to the president’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, according to an Emanuel aide.

Joe Ricketts’s children, which include Obama bundler Laura Ricketts, bought the Chicago Cubs in 2009 and have been in talks with the city about renovating the team’s 98-year-old stadium, Wrigley Field.

That appears to be on hold now.

[...]

The Ricketts family is seeking taxpayer funding for the renovations. Emanuel has reportedly sought to put $100 million in tax incentives into the deal.

If Emanuel really is nixing plans to renovate a stadium because he doesn't like a team owner's politics, this is a gross abuse of power. Ricketts might have been interested in running a crazy and rather racist ad campaign, but that doesn't mean he should be treated any differently by his mayor. One shady political turn doesn't deserve another.

Print This Post 0 Comments

Quote of the day

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

18 May 2012

“I’m not familiar, precisely, with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was.”

Oh Mitt.

Print This Post 0 Comments