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The point of pig lipstick- it’s about Obama and Parviz Davoodi
By Sam Schulman (bio)

To keep it alive is not to demonstrate that Obama is a sexist - although millions have seen him being rather ungallant to Hillary Clinton.  It is to demonstrate to all - persuaded and unpersuaded - that the Obama/Biden ticket is amateurish and unready for office.  The future President of the United States has been thinking about nothing but his opponent’s vice president for over a week.   A man without experience has descended to argue about who has less experience - with someone at the bottom of the ticket.  A man who has voted twice, steadfastly, every time he could, for the Bridge to Nowhere, is attacking somone at the bottom of the ticket for having been in favor of it before changing her mind and killing it.  Obama has many talents, but the ability to negotiate a crisis is not one of them.
To remind voters about Obama’s failure of nerve, of good manners and of common sense is a great strategy.  Because if he obsesses about Sarah Palin today rather than run his campaign, it reminds us that, if elected, he will be just as likely to obsess about Parviz Davoodi rather than focus on his country’s interests in a dangerous world.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on September 10th, 2008
Permanent link: The point of pig lipstick- it’s about Obama and Parviz Davoodi

How will he deal with Putin, Iran, Venezuela, the Chinese, the Speaker of the House?
By Sam Schulman (bio)

If, in the course of a full week since Sarah’s speech, and ten days since her nomination, Obama is still so visibly rattled, so unable to pick a strategy and stick to it, so frightened - how can he possibly be ready for the Presidency?

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Posted by Sam Schulman on September 10th, 2008
Permanent link: How will he deal with Putin, Iran, Venezuela, the Chinese, the Speaker of the House?

Good luck, McCain, and Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin
By Sam Schulman (bio)

On the day McCain “blew it” by choosing Sarah, I wrote re McCain’s choice of Sarah that it showed why military service is really important to Presidents: not because it improves their morals or proves their patriotism, but because it teaches them the importance of strategy.
Today the amazing Jennifer Rubin posted in Contentions a long list of the amazing strokes of luck that McCain has enjoyed in the last few weeks.
Which proves my point. As Napoleon is often quoted as having said, good generals are lucky, not just brave.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on September 5th, 2008
Permanent link: Good luck, McCain, and Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin

Mainline protestant churches in liberal communities support for “Jews for Jesus”
By Sam Schulman (bio)

I should not have been as surprised as I was.  Since then, I have realized that, perhaps as easy cover for their anti-Zionism, the mainline Protestant churches make a great noise about their occasional condemnation of “Jews for Jesus” and similar group.  But this fastidiousness has simply not trickled down to the parish level.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on September 4th, 2008
Permanent link: Mainline protestant churches in liberal communities support for “Jews for Jesus”

Rebrand the GOP? Last night Sarah brewed “GOP Classic”
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Where are the GOP “re-branders” now? Palin brews “GOP Classic” In the spring and summer of 2008, it was popular to talk about the GOP “brand” as damaged goods. Boehner, Schwarzenegger, Tom Davis, even Andrew Sullivan all lamented (or celebrated) the shopworn nature of the Republican brand - and all suggested that the path to re-branding led away from Bush’s White House, to a new formulation - in essence, a kinder, gentler Republicanism of the Bush I or even Rockefeller era. They ignored, of course, Bush the younger’s attempt to provide a compassionate conservatism. Needless to say, none of them had any idea of what branding is all about. As marketers, the GOP rebranders would have had successful careers at the Coca Cola Company in the early 1980s, when New Coke was created. But New Coke was a failure, except by its contrast with Coca Cola Classic. What Sarah Palin delivered last night was GOP Classic - a slap in the face not only to the hapless Obama and Biden pairing, but to those who sought to walk away from the strengths and basic identity of GOPitude and create a New GOP brand. Coca Cola Classic saved Coke. We just saw a master marketer - Sarah Palin - hired by a master CEO - John McCain - do what great marketers have always done.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on September 4th, 2008
Permanent link: Rebrand the GOP? Last night Sarah brewed “GOP Classic”

What to expect when you’re expecting depends on your politics
By Sam Schulman (bio)

1.  Bristol Palin’s pregnancy was broadcast to the world as soon - or sooner than - it was discovered.  John Edwards’s mistress Rielle Hunter’s pregnancy was covered up by major media sources even though it was well documented.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on September 1st, 2008
Permanent link: What to expect when you’re expecting depends on your politics

Questioning Kirchik’s Tribute to Joe Lieberman
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Over at Commentary’s Contentions blog, James Kirchik wrote a noble post demanding a reassesment of Joe Lieberman, now that he has been passed over for McCain’s running mate. Kirchik argues that since Lieberman did not modify his positions on key issues to him, such as abortion and the selection of judges, he should be admired for consistency, not damned as a hack:

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Posted by Sam Schulman on September 1st, 2008
Permanent link: Questioning Kirchik’s Tribute to Joe Lieberman

Kvetches from the right - Heather MacDonald says McCain surrenders to identity politics
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Heather MacDonald, who, like Noam Chomsky, is what Walter Laqueur calls a perfectionist in politics (which is an odd thing to be if you are, like Heather, an atheist conservative rather than a millenarian Marxist), grumbles noisily:

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 31st, 2008
Permanent link: Kvetches from the right - Heather MacDonald says McCain surrenders to identity politics

And at The Atlantic, James Fallows mourns as well
By Sam Schulman (bio)

The challenge is about three times as hard as Fallows thinks:

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 31st, 2008
Permanent link: And at The Atlantic, James Fallows mourns as well

Why is The New Republic so touchingly gloomy about Sarah Palin?
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Look at just a few of their recent posts:

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 31st, 2008
Permanent link: Why is The New Republic so touchingly gloomy about Sarah Palin?

Another difference between Sarah and Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, etc.
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Governor Palin did not win her way to power because of her husband’s political office, or because of her husband’s financial support. She is the first woman candidate to emerge on the national stage whose career was propelled by her own talents. In fact, her career, if anything, has impaired the middle-management career of her husband, who resigned his field supervisor’s position with BP because his company would be negotiating with the State of Alaska.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 29th, 2008
Permanent link: Another difference between Sarah and Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, etc.

Candidate X wows the Invesco Center
By Sam Schulman (bio)

“For example, you’re a voter, and you have Candidate X and Candidate Y, Candidate X agrees with you on everything. But you don’t think that person can deliver on anything. Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues, but you believe that, on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver. For whom will you vote?”

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 29th, 2008
Permanent link: Candidate X wows the Invesco Center

Why military experience matters in a Presidential candidate
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Not because it is an indicator of the willingness to sacrifice for one’s country. Not because it provides a background of solemnity and comradeship in the event of a decision to put the lives of servicemen and severicewomen on the line. What McCain gained from his military service - upon which, according to Jimmy Carter, he shamelessly capitalizes - is not moral standing but the ability to think strategically.
McCain just exhibited great generalship in the last few days - not only in whom he picked as VP, but how tightly controlled the whole process was. It took daring, imagination, and the ability to think five or six moves ahead. These are qualities that the men on the Democratic ticket often impute to themselves and have seldom shown in action.
To be fair, given the limitations of their native abilities, had Obama or Biden ever been professional soldiers, they would not have learned these things on the job. But at least they would have learned that even mediocrities must be prepared to be confronted by brilliance. Watch the left this weekend and enjoy their gnashing of teeth.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 29th, 2008
Permanent link: Why military experience matters in a Presidential candidate

Reality calling Tom Friedman: China is not a good model for us
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Tom Friedman’s column in today’s Times hails China’s progress at the expense of ours: “When you see how much modern infrastructure has been built in China since 2001, under the banner of the Olympics, and you see how much infrastructure has been postponed in America since 2001, under the banner of the war on terrorism, it’s clear that the next seven years need to be devoted to nation-building in America.”

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 27th, 2008
Permanent link: Reality calling Tom Friedman: China is not a good model for us

Hillary welcomes you to the 2012 Campaign
By Sam Schulman (bio)

It’s not a particularly brave position to take. If Obama wins, she doesn’t lose much. Her insistence on circa-1969 feminist grievances (which she does not out of conviction, I think, but out of its opposite - it’s easy for her to keep that particular background music going while she performs other tasks) will keep her immune from any interest-group recriminations. She will rise above the fray and become a Teddy-Kennedy-sort of figure - looked up to as a kind of secular saint without any of her worshippers knowing quite why. If Obama loses, then she has been just loyal enough to avoid the dolchstosse imputation, and she resumes the role of inevitability with which she is most comfortable.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 27th, 2008
Permanent link: Hillary welcomes you to the 2012 Campaign

New Republic editors sanitize Wieseltier’s doubts about Obama
By Sam Schulman (bio)

If they weren’t among the chief Jewish voices among Obama’s Zionist supporters, Marty Peretz and Leon Wieseltier would provide a beautiful anthology of anti-Obama arguments for those Jews selfish enough to wish that their race not be exterminated.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 26th, 2008
Permanent link: New Republic editors sanitize Wieseltier’s doubts about Obama

Senator Obama: You picked the wrong Joe!
By Sam Schulman (bio)

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on August 25th, 2008
Permanent link: Senator Obama: You picked the wrong Joe!

John Edwards’ New Deal in Marital Etiquette
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Earlier this week, John Edwards promised us that he only conducted his affair with Rielle Hunter during the period when his wife’s deadly cancer was in remission - and I see no reason why we should not take him at his word.  And most of us admire him for his gallantry in this regard.  But after a couple of sleepless nights, I’m no longer sure that his behavior is as admirable as I first thought.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on August 13th, 2008
Permanent link: John Edwards’ New Deal in Marital Etiquette

Obama’s enormous “race” blunder
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Senator Obama, finally, coyly, has suggested that anyone who opposes him - and whoever runs against him - is a racist.  In doing so, he has opened a Pandora’s box of evils for his campaign.  As we’ve already seen in the past few days, Obama has released the pygmy energies of his cultured defenders, who have amplified, trivialized, and thus unintentionally satirized Obama’s ploy.

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on August 7th, 2008
Permanent link: Obama’s enormous “race” blunder

Tim Kaine’s Audacity of Achievement
By Sam Schulman (bio)

I have to admit that I disagree with the estimable Mike Long about the governor of the commonwealth of Virginia in which we both live.   Tim Kaine has a record of accomplishment in his brief term as Governor that Senator Obama cannot equal.  Consider just a few of them:

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Posted by Sam Schulman on July 29th, 2008
Permanent link: Tim Kaine’s Audacity of Achievement

Andrew Sullivan Apologizes for Saving Burma
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Washington, DC - May 15, 2010. Of course I made up that headline - it hasn’t happened yet.  But George Packer is very wrong in The New Yorker, when, speaking of the West’s obligation to invade Burma in order to save the Burmese, he claims modestly that he knows “all the arguments why we shouldn’t.”  There is one paramount argument he hasn’t thought of - and that is to contemplate, a year or two hence, the onrush of a million words from Andrew Sullivan apologizing for our “botched” effort, if it is imperfect, and condemning those who were once heartened and persuaded by his former eloquence, his now-discarded wisdom and realism.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on May 15th, 2008
Permanent link: Andrew Sullivan Apologizes for Saving Burma

Obama is McCarthy, Hillary was HHH, now RFK
By Sam Schulman (bio)

In an insufficiently thought through column today, Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal compares Obama to Bobby Kennedy in 1968, another “young charismatic politician who served as a magnet for the young and idealistic, [who] was in the process of conquering doubts about his background and personality in 1968.” Seib, old enough to know better, manages to be wrong about RFK and wrong about Obama in the same sentence. RFK in 1968 was a hardened, cynical politician, perhaps the least popular member of the Kennedy family and the Kennedy administration, who, halfway through the primary season, took on, co-opted and all but defeated the charismatic, idealistic politician who had pioneered the anti-war position of those days: Eugene McCarthy. Sound familiar?

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Posted by Sam Schulman on May 6th, 2008
Permanent link: Obama is McCarthy, Hillary was HHH, now RFK

Is Obama about to Lose his Black and Left-wing Support?
By Sam Schulman (bio)

In the light of Fred Dicker’s bombshell report this morning in the NYPost,

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Posted by Sam Schulman on April 30th, 2008
Permanent link: Is Obama about to Lose his Black and Left-wing Support?

Why Attention Must Be Paid to Reverend Wright
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Many of Senator Obama’s supporters are wondering why what Jeremiah Wright said once or says now really matters to Senator Obama’s campaign. It’s a disingenuous question, but it deserves an honest answer.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on April 29th, 2008
Permanent link: Why Attention Must Be Paid to Reverend Wright

Hillary didn’t win - the laziest man in politics lost
By Sam Schulman (bio)

On March 20th, I predicted here that Obama’s essential indolence would earn him the vice presidential nomination, and that he would be glad, and relieved, to take it. His performance in the week before the Pennsylvania primary proved that, on occasion, I can be right. I argued that Obama’s career demonstrated a particular kind of ambition - an ambition that always drove him, despite his immense talents, to do the minimum, to act if absolutely necessary - but to act languidly.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on April 23rd, 2008
Permanent link: Hillary didn’t win - the laziest man in politics lost

For whom should the thinking anti-Semite vote?
By Sam Schulman (bio)

But as Robert Goldberg of The American Spectator points out, General McPeak is no mean McCarthyite himself:

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Posted by Sam Schulman on March 25th, 2008
Permanent link: For whom should the thinking anti-Semite vote?

Vice President Obama
By Sam Schulman (bio)

In my view, the Speech, for all its brilliance, has accomplished only one thing: it has made it likely that Senator Obama’s amazing career will be capped by the vice presidency. Instead of having overcome the criticism of his enemy Gerry Ferraro, he will have merged with her: he will be Ferraro to Hillary’s Mondale.

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on March 20th, 2008
Permanent link: Vice President Obama

A Fictional Obama Story that Can’t Happen Here
By Sam Schulman (bio)

I am glad to say that the following story, which I have made up out of whole cloth, could never take place, because of Senator Obama’s probity, integrity and character.

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Posted by Sam Schulman on March 3rd, 2008
Permanent link: A Fictional Obama Story that Can’t Happen Here

Obama is too smart to pick good advisors
By Sam Schulman (bio)

The more intelligent and shamefaced Obama enthusiasts often make a kind of apology for their Obamamania.  Yes, he is inexperienced, they admit, but he can certainly be trusted to pick the very best people to advise him and run his foreign and domestic policy.  Is there actually any reason to think this?

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on February 25th, 2008
Permanent link: Obama is too smart to pick good advisors

Yes I Can (like Bush)
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Try this.  Listen to Senator Obama drone on.  And then listen to President Bush - a man I admire, but to whose voice, halting, mis-speaking, mis-pronouncing words, I have never been able to listen without cringing.

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on February 20th, 2008
Permanent link: Yes I Can (like Bush)

I knew the Clintons were clever, but not this clever
By Sam Schulman (bio)

It’s a breathtaking tactic:  “Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the Democratic Party’s 2004 presidential nominee, will endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president in South Carolina today, Democratic sources told Politico.

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on January 10th, 2008
Permanent link: I knew the Clintons were clever, but not this clever

Outrageous! Maine school board gives middle-schoolers Rx birth control
By Sam Schulman (bio)

Many are outraged by the action of the King School’s health center of Portland, Maine.  There, educators are supplying prescription-only contraceptive medication - “the pill or the patch or any other reproductive health care,” according to the Portland Press Herald - to middle school children.  Parents do not give permission - indeed, they never find out.  Outrageous it is, because this is something the private sector should be doing, not the school board.   Consider these facts.

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on October 23rd, 2007
Permanent link: Outrageous! Maine school board gives middle-schoolers Rx birth control

Judge Mukasey’s disgusting Hitler analogy
By Sam Schulman (bio)

The judge played the holocaust card. In his testimony yesterday, Bush’s nominee for AG compared the interrogation of terrorists in Iraq, with vital information about threats to U.S. servicemen and Iraqi civilians, to the death camps of Nazi’s Germany. On the one hand, our treatment of people who have chosen to forego the protections afforded by the Geneva Convention, as such criminals were treated by the British in Northern Ireland (with the approval of the European Court of Justice) - on the other, extermination of people for the crime of being circumcised.

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on October 18th, 2007
Permanent link: Judge Mukasey’s disgusting Hitler analogy

Run, Al, Run, as Fast As You Can
By Sam Schulman (bio)

O day of joy! The Swedish Academy has brought another load of royal jelly to feed Al Gore’s vanity. And just as Mrs. Clinton was cementing her lead - so much so that she felt safe in cutting herself off from death-grip of the netroots and reaching out to moderates and right-of-centers.

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on October 12th, 2007
Permanent link: Run, Al, Run, as Fast As You Can

Mearsheimer and Walt Attack Armenia Lobby
By Sam Schulman (bio)

That’s a headline you won’t see. But if there ever was an instance of a “lobby” effect in the manner in which Professors Mearsheimer and Walt accuse what they call the Israel Lobby - to act against the interests of the United States because of a blood tie - it displays itself in the House resolution regarding the Muslim slaughter of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915. Those who promoted this resolution are correct about the Armenian genocide, but the resolution itself is, in my view, utterly pointless. There are many reasons why the resolution has no effect. Everyone knows that genocide was committed against the Christian citizens of the Muslim Ottoman state. There are virtually no Armenians left in modern-day Turkey, and yet Christians and Jews live in and visit Turkey today in more safety and to a warmer welcome than they do in any other Muslim-majority state. The resolution has no bearing on Turkey - the murder of Armenians during 1914-1918 was conducted by an entity with which modern Turkey has no continuity, in territory or law.

More »

Posted by Sam Schulman on October 12th, 2007
Permanent link: Mearsheimer and Walt Attack Armenia Lobby
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