Archive: 2008

Barack Obama was elected the 44th president, and first African-American president, of the United States, receiving 365 electoral votes in an election that saw perhaps the highest turnout among registered…

Read more

Dear Common Reader, The jig is up. My critical stance has been revealed, at last, as mere pose, and it is time that I confess. I owe you so little;…

Read more

From CNN: On the day that President-elect Barack Obama is visiting the White House, a new national poll suggests that the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most…

Read more

From the Washington Post: The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration’s request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In…

Read more

Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligthum. Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng getheilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.…

Read more

Lebe mit deinem Jahrhundert, aber sei nicht sein Geschöpf; leiste deinen Zeitgenossen, was sie bedürfen, nicht was sie loben. Ohne ihre Schuld geteilt zu haben, teile mit edler Resignation ihre…

Read more

As readers learned yesterday, eminent critic and longtime friend of Harper’s Magazine John Leonard died Wednesday. His most recent bio in the New York Review of Books described him this…

Read more

Election Day did not go off without a hitch, but compared with the last two general elections, 2008 seems to have functioned well–even given the historically high voter turnout. Moreover,…

Read more

From Scott Horton, posted at the Daily Beast: Was John McCain’s senior foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann fired for leaking sensitive information to his friend, the long-time McCain backer and…

Read more

From Chris Kromm at Facing South: Here are six key factors that gave him the victory: 1 – Obama mobilized the base: Perhaps more than any other candidate could have,…

Read more

Washington Post editorial: Mr. Emanuel is undoubtedly a partisan, but with centrist instincts. In his previous White House job, he oversaw President Bill Clinton’s effort to win passage of the…

Read more

Sarah Palin may have been duped by two Canadian pranksters, and she may have spent a lot of the G.O.P.’s money on clothing, but is it really possible that she…

Read more

Read more

Italian prosecutors continue to build their case against 26 American diplomats and CIA agents accused in absentia of kidnapping and assault. For the Bush Administration, which refuses all cooperation with…

Read more

Our friend John Leonard died yesterday. John’s first piece for Harper’s Magazine, a review of Renata Adler’s Speedboat and Lovers and Tyrants by Francine du Plessix Gray, appeared in November…

Read more

Yesterday afternoon, behind the stripes and holding my polling place’s already blunted pencil, I voted in the presidential election. I wrote, in a steady hand, a blue streak of ×’s,…

Read more

On my posting this morning, in which I tried not to be cynical: I understand your cynicism about the money Obama took from the people you call (and rightly so)…

Read more

I’ve never been able to muster as much enthusiasm for Barack Obama as many of my friends, but I was happy to see him win last night. He was clearly…

Read more

As Ken Silverstein and others offer their election predictions, I’d like to contribute one of my own. This will be a transformative election. The focus, appropriately, is on the likely…

Read more

There is a new America every morning when we wake up. It is upon us whether we will it or not. The new America is the sum of many small…

Read more

Wer sind wir? Wo kommen wir her? Wohin gehen wir? Was erwarten wir? Was erwartet uns? Viele fühlen sich nur als verwirrt. Der Boden wankt, sie wissen nicht warum und…

Read more

Democrats were outvoting Republicans in all nine states that track the party affiliations of early voters, indicating a likely election victory for Barack Obama. George Mason University“It’s gonna get nasty,”…

Read more

The Los Angeles Times has a nice web feature that allows you to predict the outcome of the presidential election, state by state. So here’s my prediction: Obama 311, McCain…

Read more

VOTE, n. [L. votum, from voveo, to vow. Votum is properly wish or will.] Suffrage; the expression of a wish, desire, will, preference or choice, in regard to any measure…

Read more

Our nation’s current problems started with a whiff of sulfur on Election Day 2000. Americans went to the polls in substantial numbers and voted, by a margin of over a…

Read more

History has an important role in our political discourse. It can be used to induce fear, to intimidate. It can also offer inspiration and a sense of common purpose. It…

Read more

All the available evidence suggests that Barack Obama should cruise to a comfortable margin of victory tomorrow night. “Based on interviews with political strategists in both parties, election analysts and…

Read more

One of the lowest moments of this entire campaign has been the McCain campaign’s repulsive smear job of Rashid Khalidi. The best remark about the whole episode came from Khalidi…

Read more