Daily Beast

Behind the Democratic Wipeout

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:54:00 -0500

After Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey and a near-miss in upstate New York, conservatives have supposedly gotten their groove back. But it's not the same old groove. In the late 1990s, it was social issues that obsessed the American right: abortion, gay rights, gun control, Monica Lewinsky. After 9/11, it was the war on terror. Now both obsessions have faded. Doug Hoffman-the right-wing insurgent candidate for Congress in the 23rd District of New York-didn't even list his position on the Afghanistan surge on his Web site. Bob

Petraeus for President?

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:01:00 -0400

Remember last winter, when liberals were complaining that Barack Obama had kept Bush family consigliere Robert Gates as his secretary of Defense and named a John McCain buddy, General James Jones, as his National Security Adviser? They're not complaining now. Today, Gates and Jones are MoveOn's best friends, because they provide the political cover that Obama needs to reject General Stanley McChrystal's call for more troops in Afghanistan. Imagine if Richard Danzig was Defense secretary and Susan Rice was NSC adviser, as many had expected. Obama

Obama's Nobel Farce

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:44:00 -0400

George W. Bush launched a "preemptive" war. Now the Nobel Committee is trying for "preemptive" peace. I had always thought the way these things worked was that you helped bring peace or democracy to some corner of the globe first, and then you won the Nobel Prize. But this year, the Nobel Committee has turned that logic around: It clearly likes what Obama is trying to do: on nuclear disarmament, climate change and Middle East peace--and so, in a "preemptive" strike, it's giving him the award now, in hopes that doing so will boost his

The Polanski Tax

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:03:00 -0400

Want to understand why California is such a political and budgetary mess? Consider the case of Roman Polanski.

In a strange way, the attempt by Los Angeles County prosecutors to arrest, extradite, and presumably send the French-Polish film director to prison for a 30-year-old crime-having sex with an unwilling 13 year old-offers a clear example of this state's governing myopia.

Can He Wow the World Again?

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:14:00 -0400

President Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly neatly captured his strengths and weaknesses, from his admirable focus on the difficulties involved in meeting global challenges to his easy solipsism. On Tuesday, he delivered a widely praised address on climate change, one that offered a message that was hopeful and urgent in equal measure. In one memorable passage, the president noted the United States "has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months than at any other time in our

The First Neocon

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:16:00 -0400

In Memoirs of a Trotskyist, Irving Kristol, one of the most daring and provocative American intellectuals of the 20th century, recounted his years as a young radical at New York's City College. What he recalled most vividly weren't the seminars and lectures that made up his formal education, but rather the mostly playful--but occasionally very heated-arguments that took place among friends in Alcove No. 1, a small corner of the dark and dank college cafeteria that was home to the anti-Stalinist left.

Don't Short the Surge

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:31:00 -0400

One of the many ironies of this political moment is that some of President Obama's worst enemies are poised to become his best friends. Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, is widely credited with crafting the strategy that defeated Bill Clinton's 1993 healthcare overhaul. This time around, Kristol has been an equally fierce critic of Democratic health-reform proposals. But as one of the founders of the Foreign Policy Initiative, successor to the pro-war Project for the New American Century, he has also worked to persuade Republicans to

Don't Do It, Ladies

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:54:00 -0400

To: Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina
From: Joe Mathews
Re: CEO Candidates Running for High Office in California

I would advise each of you to run for the hills. But the hills are on fire.

The national media have been full of stories about how California Republicans are "pinning their hopes" on the two of you--former CEOs who are running next year for governor (Meg) and U.S. Senate (Carly is exploring a challenge to Barbara Boxer).

Leave Van Jones Alone

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:22:00 -0400

My guess is that Van Jones and Bob McDonnell aren't the closest of friends. One is an African-American activist from the progressive left, who's spent much of his adult life in inner-city Oakland fighting The Man; the other is a white middle-aged pro-life Catholic Republican, who has long represented The Man in the deep-red Sunbelt suburbs of Virginia. But I'd recommend that Jones and McDonnell get in touch.

Mac Is Back

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:43:00 -0400

This past week, the straight-talking John McCain the media knows and loves made a conspicuous comeback. On Face the Nation, McCain struck a decidedly post-partisan note, praising the late Senator Kennedy before sharply contradicting fellow Republican Dick Cheney on torture. After a punishing defeat at the hands of Barack Obama, McCain seems to have regained his stature and his reputation for independence. He's had more media exposure than any other leading Republican, certainly far more than John Kerry in 2005 or Al Gore in 2001.