"Unleashed Some Extraordinarily Toxic Elements into the Body Politic, and They Never Disappeared"

"According to Steve Schmidt, who at the time was a prominent Republican campaign adviser for President George W. Bush, 'She would say things that are simply not true, or things that were picked up from the internet. And this obliteration of fact from fiction, of truth from lie, has become now endemic in American politics.'"

Julian Zelitzer at CNN discusses the political legacy of Sarah Palin.

"There's an Enormous Dignity Gap in the Culture"

"Longtime Democratic consultant Joe Trippi muses that prominent liberal politicians would face a penalty from voters if they skipped straight from government office to goofy reality shows. 'I think a lot of Democrats would think it lacked seriousness,' he says. '"With all the things that you could be doing with the experience you built up, that's what you decided to do with it?"'"

Joanna Weiss at Politico discusses the rise of reality-television Republicans.

"The Left May Be Building Up One of Its Own as a Prelude to Knocking Her Down"

"The question lingers, however: Do we want to hear that nuance? Democrats are desperate for agents of cosmic justice—the kinds of politicians who are willing to fight Trump in 33 different ways. This has led them to treat a hardline disciplinarian with a complicated record as if she were a cardboard cutout of Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Katy Waldman at Slate discusses the rise of Sen. Kamala Harris.

"His Real Message Seems to Be Make America Hate Again"

"My friends, this is a moment of reckoning for every Republican dismayed that the party of Lincoln has become the party of Trump. It's a moment of reckoning for all of us who love our country and believe that America is better than this.
"Twenty years ago when Bob Dole accepted the Republican nomination, he pointed to the exits in the convention hall, and told any racist in the party to get out. The week after 9/11 George W. Bush went to a mosque and declared for everyone to hear that Muslims love America just as much as I do.
"In 2008, John McCain told his own supporters that they were wrong about the man he was trying to defeat. Senator McCain made sure they knew Barrack Obama, he said, was an American citizen and a decent person.
"We need that kind of leadership again."

Time magazine publishes a transcript of Hillary Clinton's speech in Reno about Donald Trump's racism.

At Slate, Jamelle Bouie, Isaac Chotiner, Michelle Goldberg, William Saletan, and Josh Voorhees react to the speech.

As does Brian Beutler at The New Republic.

"Taking a Hard Pass"

"Some other recent conventions have had several lawmakers who notably skipped their party's nominating event. In 2008, many vulnerable GOP senators didn't attend in a year where outgoing President George W. Bush's approval rating was abysmal. In 2012, many moderate Democrats also skipped out on President Obama's convention.
"But never before in recent history have so many prominent party officials boycotted the event or found convenient other reasons not to attend because they either didn't approve of or were uncomfortable with their party's presumptive nominee."

Jessica Taylor at NPR reports on Republican no-shows at the party's convention.

"Electorally Speaking, Vice Presidential Candidates Seem to Matter at the Margins"

"If Clinton and Trump are wise, it will be those candidates who populate their shortlists–rather than gimmicks and 'game changers.'"

Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times interviews Christopher Devine and Kyle Kopko, authors of The VP Advantage: How Running Mates Influence Home State Voting in Presidential Elections.

"The 'Authentic' Politician Is a Myth"

"This taste for the apparently uncoached and unscripted goes way back; more than a century ago, the rise of image management was already sowing skepticism about campaign-trail stagecraft and stimulating a hunger for unvarnished candidates. Yet despite its deep roots, our disdain for artifice is itself somewhat superficial. In reality, we're quite happy to tolerate some image-making when it produces a leader with political traits we find congenial."

David Greenberg in the Los Angeles Times looks back at presidential image-making since the early twentieth century.

"How Did This Come to Pass?"

"But after the election, when they were free to speak their minds, they either remained quiet or abetted the dumbing-down of the party. They stood by as Donald Trump and others noisily pushed claims that Obama was born in Kenya. And they gladly rode the tea party tiger to sweeping victories in 2010 and 2014.

"Now that tiger is devouring the GOP establishment. Party elders had hoped new presidential debate rules would give them greater control. But they are watching helplessly as Trump leads the pack and House Republicans engage in fratricide.

"It's hard to feel much sympathy. The Republican establishment's 2008 embrace of Palin set an irresponsibly low bar. Coincidence or not, a batch of nonsense-spewing, hard-right candidates quickly followed, often to disastrous effect."

William M. Daley in The Washington Post argues that Republican "dysfunction all started with Sarah Palin."

And Frank Rich at New York analyzes Donald Trump as Palin's heir.

"Conservatism Itself Has Lost Its Identity to Politics"

"The mythology promulgated by the conservative movement has it that a candidate who naturally expresses both Christian conservatism and Goldwater-Reagan conservatism must be out there somewhere. But the record of three decades since Reagan won the nomination with support from both camps suggests otherwise: in a full generation, there has never been a candidate equally appealing to both kinds of conservative. What reason is there to think there ever will be one?"

Daniel McCarthy in The American Conservative looks at Republican factionalism.

"This Campaign May Now Be Romney’s to Lose"

"And I suspect—or should I say, fear—that the reason the polls moved so much is that there were a lot of voters who had tuned Obama out as a result of the bad economy. They were ready to vote against him so long as Romney passed a reasonable threshold, which he did. We’ve seen this before in presidential campaigns: in 1980, Americans were looking for an excuse to vote against the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, and so what mattered most in the debates was that Reagan didn’t look like a right-wing maniac. In 2008, Americans were looking for an excuse to vote against the de facto incumbent, John McCain, and so what mattered most in the debates was that Obama didn’t look like a novice. If the debates are really about people disillusioned with Obama becoming comfortable with Romney, it doesn’t really matter that Obama did better than Romney tonight because Romney did well enough. He again and again reminded Americans that the economy is worse than Obama said it would be, and he offered some kind of plan to make it better."

Peter Beinart at The Daily Beast worries that Mitt Romney now has the inside track for election.

2008 Redux

"'Edwards aides, Mr. Heilemann and Mr. Halperin write, felt that their boss had become increasingly megalomaniacal and narcissistic over the years, and that while the aides had sympathy for Mrs. Edwards’s struggle with cancer, they regarded her as a badgering, often irrational presence on the campaign. 'The nearly universal assessment among them,' Mr. Halperin and Mr. Heilemann write of the Edwards aides, 'was that there was no one on the national stage for whom the disparity between public image and private reality was vaster or more disturbing. What the world saw in Elizabeth: a valiant, determined, heroic everywoman. What the Edwards insiders saw: an abusive, intrusive, paranoid, condescending crazywoman.'"

Michiko Kakutani reviews John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime in The New York Times.

Equality of Opportunity

"There are, in short, three ways to become a U.S. citizen--to be born on U.S. soil, to U.S. citizens or foreign nationals; to be born to one or more U.S. citizen parents abroad; and to be born a foreign national, but to become a citizen of the U.S. by immigration to the U.S. and naturalization according to U.S. law.
"The Constitution excludes the third category of American citizens--naturalized immigrants--from ever being eligible to become president of the United States (or vice-president, inasmuch as the vice-president, who might inherit the office, must meet all of the qualifications of a president)."

Michael Lind in Salon calls for a constitutional amendment to let naturalized citizens serve as president.

You Don't Need a Weatherman

"The antiwar movement in all its commitment, all its sacrifice and determination, could not stop the violence unleashed against Vietnam. And therein lies cause for real regret."

The New York Times runs an op-ed by William Ayers.


"To me, though, he's just a shallow rich kid who took himself and his revolutionary rhetoric much too seriously, helped inspire people to do things that got them killed, and helped to discredit the anti-war movement and the left as a whole."

But in response, Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings takes Ayers apart.

As does Katha Pollitt in The Nation.

"Something Deep in the DNA"

"But there is another rendition of the story of modern conservatism, one that doesn't begin with Goldwater and doesn't celebrate his libertarian orientation. It is a less heroic story, and one that may go a much longer way toward really explaining the Republican Party's past electoral fortunes and its future."

Neal Gabler in the Los Angeles Times argues that the true father of current conservativism is Joseph McCarthy.

Never Forget

"Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: 'Why would they try to make people hate us?'"

Tim Shipman in the Telegraph reports on the spike in death threats against Barack Obama following Sarah Palin's campaign rallies.

But David Greenberg in Slate audaciously claims that other presidential campaigns have been sleazier than McCain's.

Obama-Rama VIII: The Final Frontier

After eighty-eight posts, including all of these, here is the last Barack Obama-related document dump prior to the election:

Greg Mitchell and Dexter Hill in Editor & Publisher note Obama's 240-114 lead over John McCain in newspaper endorsements, including a 65-1 tally in college student newspapers.

Christopher Hitchens in Slate denounces Sarah Palin's views about science. (And he denounces McCain over attacking Rashid Khalidi.)

The editors of The Financial Times endorse Obama.

Hendrik Hertzberg in The New Yorker explains the Republican hysteria over voter-registration irregularities.

Jane Mayer in The New Yorker explores how Sarah Palin became the Repubican Vice-Presidential nominee.

Robert Draper in The New York Times searches for a coherent theme in McCain's campaign.

The Anchorage Daily News endorses Obama.

Laurie Goodstein in The New York Times investigates Palin's Pentacostalism.

Fareed Zakaria endorses Obama in Newsweek.

Radley Balko in Reason traces how government subsidies aided Cindy McCain's fortune.

Stuart Coleman in Salon interviews Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.

The editors of The New Republic endorse Obama.

Timothy Noah in Slate asks Alan Brinkley and David Greenberg why a war record no longer necessarily aids presidential candidates.

And E. J. Dionne, Jr., in The New Republic calls Obama "the first truly 21st-century figure in American politics."

McCain's Dog Whistle

"The McCain campaign may appear to be debating public philosophy, when in fact it is making a disguised appeal to white racism. If that is the case, then 'redistributionist' and 'socialist' may be intended to be understood by white swing voters as code words that function the way that 'welfare queen' did for the Reagan campaign. A 'socialist' or 'redistributionist' is a politician who taxes white people like Joe the Plumber and gives money to... you know who."

Michael Lind in Salon reveals why John McCain cares so much about not spreading the wealth.

The Politics of Narcissism

"She went to the heartland, which she kept calling the 'pro-America' part of the country. By the end of the campaign her message was almost entirely: 'Vote for me. I’m like you. You’re like me. We’re better than other people.'
"It wasn’t racist. It was just the reductio ad absurdum of political appeals based purely on cultural or ethnic identity."

Andrew Sullivan in The Sunday Times explains how identity politics have shifted from left to right.

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

The Jon Swift blog outlines the right-wing embrace of what Richard Hofstadter described in 1964 as "the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy."

They Must Insist He's Not a Socialist

"No, it's tough these days because you've got politicians on the right, the same guys who just helped nationalize the banking system, derisively and inaccurately calling the presidential candidate on the left a socialist. That's enough to make Karl Marx harumph in his grave."

Rex W. Huppke in the Chicago Tribune interviews socialists who are shocked and saddened to hear John McCain claim that Barack Obama is one of them.

And in Slate, Timothy Noah points out how McCain is at odds with his supposed hero, Theodore Roosevelt.