Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
"It was inevitable that Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital would feature prominently in the presidential race, because both candidates need to exploit it in order to win." Here's how the issue is playing out politically
Romney: Father, son and ghost. How much does the life and experience of George Romney, failed candidate for Republican nomination in 1968, explain motivation and electoral strategy of his son Mitt?
Main topic: Losing faith in Obama. He overpromised, underdelivered. “It’s like a novelist being obsessed with Tolstoy or Proust, and then he ends up writing short stories that can barely get into some middlebrow magazine." Ouch
Scathing takedown of US president. "It isn’t simply that Obama lied. Politicians lie. But there are norms for political lying. The depth and dependability of Obama’s misrepresentation constitute a difference in kind"
How America's Supreme Court rewrote campaign finance law in the case of Citizens United. "The decision followed a lengthy and bitter behind-the-scenes struggle that produced both secret unpublished opinions and a rare reargument"
Colleagues profess sorrow for Richard Lugar, denied the chance to run again for the Senate at 80. But why didn't he retire long ago? Doesn't he have a home or family to go to? Is he so foolish as to think he is indispensable?
Teenage Mitt Romney bullied a gay student at his elite prep school, pinning his victim down and cutting off his hair. Inevitably, the presumed Republican presidential candidate of today has no recollection of this
Why did Indiana voters dump long-serving senator, Richard Lugar? Americans "are looking for a political idiom that captures their anger at those who fostered and benefited from the Great Recession". They didn't get it from Lugar
"As world population peaks and begins to decline later in this century, the strongly religious will stand against the tide. In so doing, they will remake societies and wash away many of our certainties about secularization"
Chomsky interview: "The Republican Party has pretty much abandoned any pretence of being a traditional political party. It’s in lockstep obedience to the very rich, the super rich and the corporate sector." And religious extremists
On the chairman of House Budget Committee, designer of Republican budget. Rose seemingly without trace. All but unchallengeable by Romney, other senior Republicans. Democrats are having a job too. But his plan is not moderate
Were Romney to beat Obama in November, who would be moving into Karl Rove's old office? Eric Fehrnstrom, he of the Etch a Sketch gaffe. Romney's most trusted adviser. Former tabloid reporter who isn't shy about breaking a few legs
"There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is"
