Michael Tomasky's Blog, page 59

The great Obama-Axelrod-etc. mystery | Michael Tomasky

Here's one of the big questions, really, one to chew on over the weekend, one that's asked a lot around this town. How could a bunch of people who ran such a brilliant campaign be doing such a lousy job at the politics of governing?

It really is a mystery. In 2008, they seemed two steps ahead of everybody else. In 2010, they seem two steps behind. What happened?

Let's consider some possible explanations:

1. Campaigns are easier than governing. Not to be discounted. Campaigns are hard, but...

Ben Bernanke's cold comfort for Democrats | Michael Tomasky

The federal reserve chairman may have steadied markets, but will hardly have settled Democratic nerves for the midterms

So federal reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, in his Friday speech to a global group of central bankers gathered in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gave his most robust assurances to date that the Fed would act to prop up the US economy and prevent a further downward spiral. The announcement came on the same day that the US government revised previous second-quarter growth estimates down ...

Friday quiz: The world of the ancients | Michael Tomasky

About a decade or so ago, I was watching something on TV about ancient Egypt and it struck me that I didn't really know the first thing about the ancient world. Okay, I knew the first thing, which is that Egypt was really big. But I didn't know the second thing or third thing or any of the rest of the things.

I went out that very weekend and bought an Atlas of the Ancient World and read it and studied the maps. What a journey, and what a great mystery unraveled, finally being able to attach...

Cuba? Really? Now? | Michael Tomasky

There's a fair amount of radio noise, and some of you have probably heard it, about some upcoming Obama administration moves with relation to Cuba.

It is said that there might be an executive order to improve travel opportunities and maybe other measures within a couple of weeks. Brits, in case you don't know: Americans basically can't go to Cuba now, with a few exceptions. Last year, Obama made it easier for Cuban-Americans to go see relatives who still live on the island.

I'm all for this...

Thoughts on Ken Mehlman | Michael Tomasky

I do feel a degree of sympathy for Ken Mehlman, the former RNC chair who finally announced today that he's gay (another shocking newsflash: Brett Favre is a prima donna!).

Say you're young. You love politics. You want to work in politics. And say you study up on politics and history, and you decide that you like your taxes low, your enterprise private, your patriotism 200 proof and so on. You're a conservative. Fine.

Then you grasp that you're gay. The conservative movement is in part...

Perspective | Michael Tomasky

I was watching Rachel Maddow last night and she was making what I thought was an interesting point about how, assuming tea party guy Joe Miller holds on to victory in Alaska, the Republican Party will now be putting forward four-count-em-four nominees for the Senate who oppose abortion rights even in the cases of rape and incest.

That would be Miller, Sharron Angle in Nevada, Rand Paul in Kentucky and Ken Buck in Colorado. It looks to me like Miller, if he survives the absentee ballot count...

Liberals and religion and culture | Michael Tomasky

Susan Jacoby is a writer I admire, author of the excellent book Freethinkers from a few years ago, which I commend to you if you're not familiar.

Now she has a piece up at BQO (Big Questions Online) about ostensibly Ayaan Hirsi Ali but really about liberals and religion and values. She argues, and it's an argument we've heard a lot of, that liberals are afraid to critique certain religions and their practices because it's not our place to say that our values are better.

Let me say here, and...

The New York stabbing | Michael Tomasky

Anyone surprised that a Muslim cab driver was stabbed in New York? If you are surprised, you've been sleepwalking the last two weeks.

The man, Ahmed Sharif, will survive. But from reports it seems clear that he was stabbed because of his religion. The passenger, Michael Enright, from an upstate town, asked the driver if he was Muslim. When he said yes, Enright produced a Leatherman tool and stabbed him repeatedly.

Sharif said:

"I feel very sad. I have been here more than 25 years. I have been...

How many 'bodies in the street' are needed? | Michael Tomasky

The egg salmonella outbreak here in the states, which has so far made about 1,500 people sick, is the result of several factors, but notably the tremendous consolidation of egg-farming in the last two decades into a smaller number of large factory farms, and the lack of regulatory oversight.

At TNR, Jonathan Cohn writes that in 1999, the Clinton administration was getting around to imposing new rules on the changing egg industry, but it was toward the tail end of the administration's days and ...

Men of Britain, explain yourselves

From this ABC News report, an interesting finding about British men who travel:

...in the last 12 months, British hotel chain Travelodge has reunited more than 75,000 bears with the owners. That's a lot of stuffed animals left at its 452 hotels in the United Kingdom and Spain. So the company decided to investigate a bit further.

Travelodge surveyed 6,000 Britons and discovered that 35 percent of adults admitted they sleep with their teddy because they found cuddling their bear comforting...