Classic conservative relativism whose generic line of logic is, 'Well, if you think such-and-such issue is bad here, check out what this third world dictatorship is doing." According to Hayes, Iraq's fragile government should be praised as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, despite its deep corruption, factiousness and instability. And apparently the United States government is absolved of responsibility to its women because women in Saudi Arabia can't drive. This kind of outrage dominates conservative talk of American exceptionalism. Wholly unoriginal and poorly reasoned. The author does make a more careful point at the end -- that Obama seemed to contradict himself in his passage about "elevating" one group or nation ... More »

His Iraq argument falls flat, and his American exceptionalism argument is obtuse, but there is some merit in the women's rights critique.