Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Friday

Alex Massie

Department of Bumper-Stickers

With regard to the previous post, indefatigable commenter NDM has this to say: John Galt's The Member and The Radical, available in a handy combined edition from Canongate, are also interesting on this topic. Talking of Galt, I was once driving along one of America's more boring interstates when I saw a bumper sticker with "Ask me, who is John Galt?" I'm thinking why does this car have a bumper sticker about a long-dead and not overly fashionable Scottish novelist. At that time I didn't know about the ever-fashionable Ayn Rand cult. Readers are invited to supply further examples of bumper-sticker confusion.

Thursday

Alex Massie

You mean Africa is, like, a continent?

You betcha! According to Fox News' Carl Cameron Sarah Palin wasn't aware of this. Nor, he says, could she name the countries that signed NAFTA. Clue: there are only three. This latter problem alone must, one supposes, have horrified the campaign (though of course they only had themselves to blame), the former something that though hard to believe (surely!) you can't do very much about. Of course, self-interest abounds here: McCain's advisors have every incentive to pin the blame upon Palin. But still... UPDATE: Ramesh Ponnuru says it's rather more likely that Palin didn't appreciate that South Africa was, you know, a country not just the bottom bit of Africa. That would still be startling, of course, but more plausible.

Alex Massie

Obama’s Test

Hope has a short half-life. Right now most of the world is simply happy to see an end to the Bush years. Even so, there's no denying that Obama generates much more excitement internationally than, say, Hillary Clinton would have had she been elected President. Much, though not all, of this excitement is generated by Obama's personal story, not his policies. Nothing either wrong or surprising about that, though foreigners do like all the stuff about how Obama intends to restore America's standing in the world. But there will come a time, not immediately but sometime, when flesh needs to be put on those rhetorical bones. A time when promises must be followed by action. A time for cheques to be cashed. And that means action on Guantanamo Bay and Extraordinary Rendition.

Alex Massie

Bloggers & Ministers

I'm glad Trixy reminded me about the startlingly daft speech Hazel Blears, the Communities Minister (whatever that means), gave to the Hansard Society the other day. Though the irrepressible Mrs Blears was correct to bemoan the rise of a political class with no hinterland beyond Westminster (this also applies to the media classes, of course), it was her comments about blogs that were the purest Class A piffle. Apparently: Until political blogging 'adds value' to our political culture, by allowing new voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Bloggery

Are you interested in technology and technology policy and politics? If so then you should zip on over to Julian Sanchez's new blog, Law & Disorder at Ars Technica. Goodness assured.

Alex Massie

When lunatics write…

I'd wondered how Melanie Philips - Britain's pop-eyed, vein-bulging answer to Andy McCarthy and Stanley Kurtz - might react to the election of Barack Obama. Happily, she doesn't disappoint: Those of us who have looked on appalled during this most frightening of presidential elections – at the suspension of reason and its replacement by thuggery -- can only hope that the way this man governs will be very different from the profile provided by his influences, associations and record to date. It’s a faint hope – the enemies of America, freedom and the west will certainly be rejoicing today...

Alex Massie

Double-standards?

There's a rather odd notion in some circles that black people voting for Barack Obama on the grounds that he is black is itself somewhat racist. Here's Iain Dale for instance: I could hardly believe my ears this morning, listening to my old mucker Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on 5 Live, talking about the US election. Shelagh Fogarty quoted a poll saying that 97% of black voters in America are supporting Obama. She asked Yasmin if she thought it was OK for black people to vote for him purely because he is black. Yasmin said yes, she thought it was absolutely fine.I wonder what she would have said to white voters voting for McCain purely on the basis that he is white. Sadly that question wasn't asked. This, alas, strikes me a somewhat simple-minded nitwittery. Nitwittery that also ignores history.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

In Which Your Humble Blogger Hazards a Reckless Prediction

You will see that I'm sticking my neck out and suggesting Barack Hussein Obama could be the next President of the United States. I thought about honouring Missouri's reputation as a bell-weather and putting that in his column. Or, to put it another way, I think Obama will win at least one of Missouri, Indiana and North Carolina. Of those, I'm obviously more confident about taking a punt on NC. What do you guys think?

Alex Massie

The Big Dog Gets On Board

An early start for Democratic volunteers in the Buckeye State. A friend emails to report: Woke up this morning at 4am with my cell phone ringing and Bill Clinton's voice on the other end, "Wake up Ohio volunteer, this is Bill Clinton, the last Democratic President, telling you to get out of bed and go win this thing for the next Democratic President Barack Obama.". Great on many levels.

Alex Massie

Meanwhile, in Virginia…

As voting gets underway across the United States, have a look at this TV ad from a Congressional race in Virginia. I do wish we had stuff like this in Britain. This has an authentically salty disgust to it that makes it all seem very pleasingly 19th century. You were allowed to go negative back then, of course...Great pay-off line: "Gerry Connelly. Too Corrupt, Even For Congress."[Hat-tip David Boaz who points out that Connolly may be on the receiving end of a bum rap here.

Alex Massie

A View From Britain

My friend Fraser Nelson waits until the last-minute before hopping aboard the Obama express and does so largely because he thinks Obama is likely to do some good in terms of how America is perceived around the world and, let's be honest, because Obama's election might make the sanctimonious left rethink, at least for a moment, some of their prejudices about the United States. Still, I also enjoyed his payoff: Finally, my Republican friends have been gushing about Tony Blair for years now – they didn’t have to live with his policies. I won’t have to live with Obama’s. So it’s time for some light revenge.

Alex Massie

Election Open Thread

So, readers, how has your election day been so far? What are you seeing out there? Cool stuff? Depressing revelations? Reassuring experiences? You can email me here. Also, I'm pondering a marathon live-blog tonight. Good idea or not?

Alex Massie

As Goes Guam, So Goes the Nation

The results from Guam are in and seem to indicate good times for two parties. That's to say the Democrats have turned things around in the Pacific, winning nearly 62% of the vote (did Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy also include Guam?). More importantly, as Dave Weigel reveals, Bob Barr's 97 votes constitute a "mini-surge" in support for the Libertarian Party. For the GOP, good news is harder to find. Even on Guam.

Alex Massie

Jon Snow Tries to Get Me To Hope for a McCain Miracle

Channel 4 News' anchor, Jon Snow, has just been talking about how electing Barack Obama means "America has come of constitutional age". Yes, really. Apparently none of those previous elections were legitimate. Now of course Snow's program tilts even further to the left than the BBC so you might expect him to say something like this. But there will, alas, be much more of this sort of nonsense. Now in one sense, it's clear what Snow means: after all, there are many people who do not expect to agree with Obama politically who appreciate, nonetheless, that his victory is a splendid and significant moment in American history. But Snow's smugness, indeed his condescension, is another matter altogether.

Alex Massie

Live-blog and chat

So this is where it all ends campers. That being the case it's only seemly to see out this marathon campaign with another live blog and chat extravaganza. That being so, everything will kick off here around 6.30EST/11.30GMT. It will, hopefully, be, like fun. There's history to be made, folks!

Monday

Alex Massie

A Revengers’ Satisfaction

There's something awful about a bad review. By which I mean, one can sometimes feel rather sorry for the poor writer suffering under a prolonged and vicious barrage (one thinks of some of Dale Peck's screeds in the New Republic for instance) that leaves him - and by its end, the reader too - shell-shocked. All that time and effort spent, just so some hack bastard can tear it to pieces for the (undoubted) entertainment of bastard readers who weren't going to buy the bastarding book anyway. On the other hand, sometimes the author is Alastair Campbell. Fair game, in other words. And, to be honest, Peter Kemp's Sunday Times review is kinder than it might have been. That's to say, other folk will enjoy plunging the knife in deeper than does Kemp.

Alex Massie

In anticipation of an Obama victory…

Some thoughts on the campaign in advance of the last day of voting tomorrow... Timing matters and, as any sports coach will tell you, it can't be taught. You have it or, alas, you don't. The same might be said for good fortune. That's to say, success in political campaigns rarely has a monocausal explanation. Hindsight permits one to assemble the jigsaw and see how it all made sense, but that's a far cry from presuming that it was inevitable that this kind of puzzle could only be put together this way.

Alex Massie

Buckeye Skullduggery!

Meanwhile, super-secret Democratic operative "Josh Lyman" emails this update from Ohio: Calls are being made to some of our voters in Toledo warning voters of long lines at the polls and if they wanted to vote over the phone by expressing their preference on the key pad they can.

Alex Massie

Obama’s Good Fortune

Commenting on this post, a very astute reader makes these excellent points: Two more thoughts on timing 1) Obama is the luckiest loser in history.  Had he won the House race vs. Bobby Rush in 02 he'd probably be lost in Jesse Jackson Jr's shadow and relegated to a life of obscurity.  2) The key to Obama winning was Michigan and Forida being stripped [of their delegates].  Had they voted on or before February 5th he'd have been toast. Thank you Debbie Dingell. I don't know about "life of obscurity" but, yes, it's much more difficult to see how Obama could have launched a Presidential campaign after just two terms in the House of Representatives. If he had been in the House would he have been asked to give the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention?