Lots to get to, so no introduction. Well, except that.
1. The Civil War was about slavery, as Edward Ball reminds us.
2. Alan Abromowitz explains the lay of the land in the 112th Congress.
3. Ezra Klein is brilliant about Coke, Pepsi, and Chris Christie. Although I'll admit that a good part of why I think it's brilliant is because I believe his version of the New Coke story, without actually knowing whether it's true. Still, it's good.
4. Andrew Sullivan makes the case for Obama as a Tory. Not sure if he's right, but well worth reading.
5. I've been reading Austin Frankt and Aaron Carroll's "The Incidental Economist" more often recently, mostly to understand health care policy better. Here, though, Carroll just has an excellent screed about Arizona.
6. Adama Serwer explains the Obama detention policy.
7. Kevin Drum nails "The Really Big Country Problem."
8. Annie Lowrey engages in Fed-watching.
9. Serwer on ACA and the Constitution.
10. Jack Goldsmith on Wikileaks.
11. And a gloomy Afghanistan update, from Fred Kaplan.
Pardon my ignorance of British politics. I have no idea what it means to say Obama is a 'Tory president', and Sullivan doesn't explain.
ReplyDeleteThe Tories are approximately the Blue Dog Democrats of today, with a few fringe members who'd count as moderate Republicans. Historically and officially they're the UK Conservative party; given that the name 'Tory' comes from the party which opposed the downfall of the divine right of Kings, they've been around a while.
ReplyDeleteThey've had their extremist periods, but typically they've been a party of realpolitik in the service of tradition and stability; they've also been the natural party of the middle-class reactionary and bigot.
Obama does, in many ways, fit the mold of a centrist Tory Prime Minister, such as John Major; certainly better than he fits the profile of a liberal of any sort.