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What’s a Liberal, Anyway?

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Jan. 25 (Opinion) - Andrew Sullivan is bemused to find himself on Forbes‘ list of “The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media” since he considers himself a conservative. He posts a reader email that muses on this fact: Did you notice how many people on the list were seemingly chosen not for their writing or their politics, but rather their identity? Oprah is a liberal because she is black, Hitch is a liberal because he is atheist, and you are a liberal because you are gay. These are not just things that are mentioned in the list — they are the primary reasons given which, coupled with any support at all for Obama in the past election, set your name in stone as a liberal one. I suspect that a few of the choices for that list say much more about the Forbes writers’ politics than it does about yours.

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Tensions Rising Between Pakistan and India

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By Dave Schuler - Dec. 26 (Comment) - The news from Pakistan and India isn’t exactly the sort to promote Christmas cheer. The tensions between the two countries, on hair trigger since the attacks in Mumbai last month with Indian officials blaming the attacks on Pakistan and Pakistani officials denying it vehemently, have ratcheted up another notch.

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Palin Last Nail in Republican Coffin?

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Nov. 06 (Opinion) - The whole Palin thing, though, worries me. I take people like George Will and Christopher Buckley and Colin Powell at their word when they say the selection of Palin was very troubling to them. And, to the extent Palin did lack “knowledgability,” it’s not her fault that she was jumped directly from Rookie League ball to the World Series.

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Real America

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Oct. 19 (Opinion) - Sarah Palin caused a bit of a flap earlier in the week when she told a North Carolina crowd that she loved visiting the “pro-America” parts of the country, leading WaPo’s Juliet Eilperin to quip, “No word on which states she views as unpatriotic.” The campaign circulated a longer report, courtesy of WSJ’s Elizabeth Holmes, putting the remarks in context, which Eilperin posted:

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Obama Waffles - Racist or Fair Satire?

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Sep. 14 (Opinion) - Attendees at a Family Research Council convention were buying up "Obama Waffles" like hotcakes before organizers decided they contained images that could be deemed racist and suspended sales.

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Race Still Tied After Conventions

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Sep. 07 (Opinion) - The presidential race was essentially tied going into the party conventions. As expected, Barack Obama got a small bounce, somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 points, from the Democratic convention. As expected, McCain is getting a bounce from his convention. The wild card factor, the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate and her subsequent convention speech, seems thus far to have worked out swimmingly, reenergizing the campaign with the base.

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Country First: A Fascist Idea?

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Sep. 05 (Opinion) - While hyper-nationalism is a key component of fascist ideology, it doesn't follow that loyalty to country is fascist. McCain isn't advocating blind obedience to government authorities. Rather, he's expressing a profound sense of duty to stand up for our shared ideals.

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U.S. Stationing Diplomats in Iran

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Jul. 17 (Opinion) - The fact of the matter is that we have had diplomatic relations with the Iranian government in all but name throughout this period. Indeed, we negotiated the release of our Embassy hostages. Less happily, the Reagan administration engaged in a convoluted and illegal sale of arms to the Iranians in exchange for cash to illegally support the Nicaraguan Contras. And the Bush administration, despite saber rattling, has obviously been talking as well.

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Were There No Oil Spills From Katrina?

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By Alex Knapp - Jun. 20 (Opinion) - In the comments to my latest post on domestic oil production, in which I continue my skepticism over the benefits to more domestic oil production, a number of claims were made in the comments that raised some interesting issues. So I thought it might be worthwhile if I went ahead and investigated some of these claims and presented the evidence. Some of these claims are going to require more research than others, so I’ll be spreading them out over several posts. For today, the claim I thought would be the easiest to look up was the continuous repeat of John McCain’s recent claim that there were no significant spills from offshore oil platforms due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Is this true?

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Is it Worth Drilling For More Domestic Oil?

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By Alex Knapp - Jun. 11 (Opinion) - even if we were to open up all of our offshore and onland sites for oil exploration today, it would be at least a decade, if not longer, before that oil started pumping. Meanwhile, over that decade, subsidized consumption in India and China would continue to rise, OPEC fields would continue to be maxed out, refineries would likely still be running at full capacity, and as a consequence, gas prices would still continue to increase at a decent clip. And the consequences of those gas prices rising-more mass transit, more fuel efficient vehicles, more investment in alternative energy sources-would also likely continue.

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McCain Hates War, Loves America

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Jun. 06 (Opinion) - Hotline reports that the McCain campaign will launch this ad, titled simply "Safe," today in "unnamed battleground states." (Although I'm pretty sure that the states have names, since I know of no states without names.)...Granting that I'm not the target audience, this doesn't strike me as a very effective spot. For one thing, the delivery is tired. ... More importantly...Is hated war off the table? Or does he love the country enough to go to war to keep it safe even though he hates war? One presumes the latter. But, if that's the case, what's his point?

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Paramilitarization of Police

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Jun. 06 (Opinion) - Radley Balko wonders why a catalog selling off duty noveltywear to police officers is doing selling "Death Dealer" t-shirts....Cops, though, aren't trigger pullers by mission. Desensitizing them to violence probably isn't a good idea.

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Goldfarb and McCain

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Jun. 03 (Opinion) - I'm only vaguely familiar with Goldfarb's work as a blogger but he's apparently been in the writing business for quite some time, including a stint at Time.com more than a decade ago. One presumes he's qualified to write press releases and carry out other duties associated with the job which, as described by Bill Kristol in the announcement post, is pretty low-vis: "He'll be focusing on their online activities."

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Indiana and North Carolina Primary Predictions

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - May. 06 (Opinion) - Voters in Indiana and North Carolina go to the polls today having far more impact on the race than anyone would have thought possible four months ago. If Barack Obama wins both states, even narrowly, it will be difficult for Hillary Clinton to justify staying in the race. If Clinton wins both, it will be evident that recent events have seriously hurt Obama's candidacy and could signal to the superdelegates that they should seriously consider handing the nomination to Clinton. The most likely result, though, is that Clinton wins Indiana and Obama wins North Carolina, maintaining the status quo.

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Dissent in the Army

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Apr. 26 (Opinion) - Phil Carter has an interesting debate with his Slate colleague Fred Kaplan about how the assignment of LTC Paul Yingling (of "A Failure in Generalship" fame) to a non-standard artillery assignment squares with SECDEF Robert Gates' admonition to West Point cadets that "as an officer you don't tell blunt truths or create an environment where candor is encouraged, then you've done yourself and the institution a disservice."

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Clinton Wins Big in Pennsylvania, Fights On

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - On the surface, this is very bad news, indeed, for Obama. He's comparatively weak with the very groups he'll most need in November. Then again, he's currently running against another left-of-center Democrat. That won't we the case in the Fall. For all of the trepidation movement Conservatives feel about McCain, he's well to the right of both Clinton and Obama on the issues that matter to independents.

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Press Bias and Campaign 2008

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Mar. 25 (Opinion) - In reality, all of the remaining major candidates have benefited from this treatment and most of the also-rans did not. The press has the same tendency as the rest of us to filter incoming information through our preconceptions, a phenomenon social scientists call "expectancy bias." Hillary Clinton is the smartest person in the room and has loads of experience. Barack Obama is a post-racial uniter who will heal our wounds. John McCain is a straight-talking maverick who's not at all like other Republicans. Those are simply facts and any evidence which might controvert them must therefore be aberrations to be explained away.

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Ron Paul Flatlines

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Feb. 03 (Opinion) - Ron Paul's ability to attract enthusiastic support among young people, especially online, has been quite impressive and unexpected. The degree to which that has translated into fundraising capability has been nothing short of spectacular.

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Republican Support Trending Up?

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Jan. 02 (Opinion) - Ed Morrissey thinks these trends reflect public dissatisfaction with the job the Democrats in Congress, particularly Speaker Pelosi, have done, along with a sense that the Democratic presidential field is not ready for prime time. Betsy Newmark credits Congressional Republicans having seen the error of their ways after their 2006 midterm defeat.

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A Resume is Not Enough

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Dec. 23 (Opinion) - Frank Rich notes that established candidates in both parties are struggling against comparative upstarts. As it happens, I asked McCain this very question on a conference call Wednesday afternoon, albeit somewhat more colorfully phrased. McCain laughed appreciatively and gave his standard answer: "Life isn't fair."

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McCain Wins Iowa and New Hampshire Endorsements

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Dec. 16 (Opinion) - John McCain has received all the key newspaper endorsements for the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, despite being a non-factor in the polls in the former and trailing in the latter. The Des Moines Register backed McCain despite his being in 5th place in their own polls; apparently, they're not so much trying to influence the outcome as to go on the record.

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Income Level is Not Social Class

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:54:55 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Nov. 27 (Opinion) - Statistical sleight of hand is often performed on these numbers by those with an agenda, such as the recent much-hyped Heritage Foundation study asserting that Democrats are the party of the rich because they represent the Congressional Districts with the highest income. As Julian Sanchez and others have pointed out, this is completely meaningless, merely telling us what we already know (Democrats are concentrated in the cities and the affluent coastal areas) in a misleading way.

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Ron Paul's Libertarian Revolution

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 08:09:38 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Nov. 25 (Opinion) - Reason editors Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch argue in today's WaPo that a libertarian revolution is afoot, as evidenced by Ron Paul's having risen to five percent in the polls and raised a substantial sum of money. The piece has gotten substantial blogospheric attention, little of it positive. John Little sees not a revolution but a cult, specifically a cult of personality. This leads commenters to retort, rather persuasively, that Paul hardly has a personality at all.

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The Coup at Home?

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:30:39 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Nov. 11 (Opinion) - In an incredibly hyperbolic piece with the over-the-top headline "The Coup at Home," NYT columnist Frank Rich draws an equivalence between the coup in Pakistan and the incremental decline of freedom in the United States in the name of counter-terrorism.

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Democrats Demand Colleges Stop File Sharing

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:17:28 -0800

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Nov. 10 (Opinion) - I can understand the music industry's frustrations over file sharing, since their business model has long revolved around packaging songs people want with nine others that they don't. Ditto the movie studios, who want to control the release dates of DVDs so as to make it more likely people will pay $9 each to watch flicks in crowded theaters while consuming ridiculously overpriced snacks. I can even understand why Congress, which is empowered to protect intellectual property rights, would pass legislation making it illegal to "share" copyrighted music. But why on earth is it the responsibility of universities to monitor how students are using the Internet?

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