Agenda Setter for a Generation

"In jail, he began working on what later became the Port Huron Statement in 1962, a manifesto that inspired the national student movement to fight against what it saw as an oppressive government.

"'Where possible, the peace movement should challenge the "peace credentials" of the otherwise-liberals by threatening or actually running candidates against them,' Hayden wrote in the statement. It was a philosophy he would later adopt himself in his numerous successful and unsuccessful runs for office."

Evan Sernoffsky and Steve Rubenstein at SF Gate write an obituary for Tom Hayden.

"Nothing Sanders Said Discouraged the Consensus"

"One way for Clinton to marginalize Sanders or even push him out of the race would be to move closer to Sanders’ populist positions. Could the Clintons, who are famous (or infamous) for marginalizing the party’s left and realigning it with Big Money (NAFTA, deregulation, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers), actually swing back to the left in 2016? They may think that they don’t need to, because Clinton’s economic policies only need a bit of 'refreshing,' and because a Hillary candidacy will turn into a referendum on women’s rights just as 2008 became a referendum on racism. They may be right if the Republicans cannot leash their mad-dog chauvinists. But if the nominee is Jeb Bush? The campaign then would seem to many Americans one over over dynastic succession, in which case the economic issues—and the 'Bernie factor'—could become decisive."


Tom Hayden in The Nation says that "Bernie Sanders is inching closer to deciding to run for president as a Democrat in 2016."


And Michael Kazin in The New Republic calls on Sanders to run.

"The Most Eloquent Manifesto in the History of the American Left"

"But by invoking the spirit of John Dewey, Albert Camus, C. Wright Mills, Michael Harrington and Pope John XXIII, by at once championing and chiding organized labor as a victim of its own success (the S.D.S. began as the student arm of the League for Industrial Democracy), by elevating the university to the apex of activism and by validating liberalism and the two-party system, Tom Hayden and his colleagues forged a manifesto that still reverberates."

Sam Roberts in The New York Times marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Port Huron Statement.

Obama-Rama IV (Because I Know You Want More)

As Super Tuesday sweeps the nation, here is yet another round-up of Barack Obama-related articles:

In Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria argues that Hillary Clinton is too fearful to lead boldly.

In Slate, Akhil Reed Amar considers how the founders would view the presidential candidates.

Ellen Wulfhorst of Reuters investigates the candidates' clothing choices.

In The New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg defends Obama.

Christopher Hayes in The Nation makes his choice.

Eric Zorn in the Chicago Tribune updates criticism of Abraham Lincoln for the internet age.

David Brooks in The New York Times places Obama in the early 1960s and criticizes Hillary Clinton's insistence on health-care mandates.

Bruce J. Schulman in The Washington Independent compares Obama to past insurgents.

Tom Hayden in The Nation endorses Obama.

Caroline Kennedy endorses Obama in The New York Times.