Colin Kahl and Shawn Brimley are calling for a strategy of “conditional engagement” in Iraq, to replace the Bush/McCain unconditional engagement and forestall the left’s and Clinton’s new-found unconditional disengagement. But always be wary of two-by-two’s with empty cells; Kahl & Brimley overlook a 4th option: conditional disengagement. This is almost the Obama strategy — [...]
Entries from March 2008
30 March 2008
Clinton’s Sniper Slip
Hilary Clinton exaggerated the danger of her 1996 trip to Tzula, but it would be unfair to say that her imaginary landing under sniper fire and dash for cover was designed to illustrate her credentials to be commander-in-chief. She mis-remembered her trip after former Army Sec. Togo West gave an anecdote about it. The remarks [...]
30 March 2008
Krugman to Obama: Drop Dead
Paul Krugman apparently does not like Barak Obama much. He goes out of his way to criticize him and praise Hilary Clinton. Both Obama and Clinton endorse the Dodd-Frank plan to expand FHA authority, so how can it be that Obama’s “proposals for aid to the victims of the current crisis, though significant, are less [...]
18 March 2008
FPTP v. PR in Primaries
What if Democratic primaries and caucuses did not award delegates based on proportional representation but instead on the first-past-the-post or winner-take-all formula that the GOP uses? By my count, excluding Florida and Michigan, Clinton would have 1,428.5 delegate-votes to Obama’s 1,255.* In short, Clinton would be winning, not Obama. If there were no super-delegates, and [...]
9 March 2008
The Ultimate Question
From today’s on-line New York Times:
Mr. Bush said, as he had previously, that information from the C.I.A.’s interrogations had averted terrorist attacks, including plots to attack a Marine camp in Djibouti; the American Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan; Library Tower in Los Angeles; and passenger planes from Britain. He maintained that the techniques involved — the [...]
