Posted in Election 08 on October 15, 2008 | 20 Comments »
I know the hour is late, but… John McCain, if you’re listening, here’s what I think you should do in tonight’s debate:
First, announce that you’ve fired your campaign management, and that you’re dumping Palin and replacing her with Romney. Come clean and say she was a bad choice, bad for you and even worse for [...]
Posted in Afghanistan on October 15, 2008 | 3 Comments »
By now, even President George W. Bush admits things aren’t going well in Afghanistan. Just yesterday, UN special envoy Kai Eide said the insurgency “has spread beyond Taliban strongholds in the south and east while the number of attacks in the country has reached a six-year high”.
But even when the ship is sinking, you can [...]
Posted in Al-Qaeda, Election 08 on October 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In Salon yesterday, Walter Shapiro listed four possible game-changers that could “still produce a long count on election night or even a McCain presidency”. One of them:
Seven years after 9/11, it seems both alarmist and in bad taste to speculate about the political fallout from a pre-election terrorist incident. But al-Qaida surprises can come in [...]
Posted in Election 08 on October 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve disagreed with him in the past, but this piece is brilliant.
Posted in Iran on October 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Just a short note: Zamin has another thoughtful post on presidential politics in Iran. If you ask me, those two guys fighting over who gets to redecorate the White House need to start reading this stuff now.
Posted in Election 08 on October 11, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks traveling through small-town America, from eastern Kentucky to southern Illinois, trying to figure out where these places, which I will call “The Lost World” in my upcoming story, stand on election day.
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t claim to understand Americans, but for what it’s worth, here are [...]
Posted in Iraq on October 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Reporters have had a field day gorging on a draft of the upcoming National Intelligence Estimate, leaked to the press a couple of days ago. Unsurprisingly, the NIE presents a bleak picture of the war in Afghanistan. What’s worse, it offers little in the way of optimism on Iraq, according to McClatchy:
[...] Unresolved ethnic and [...]
Posted in Election 08 on October 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is still bothering me, so here goes.
I don’t understand Americans. For a European watching yesterday’s debate there was no question who should be the next president of the United States. McCain was stiff, nasty and out of breath. Instead of making a case he seemed to be making a plea. Alternately incomprehensible and self-aggrandising, [...]
Posted in Election 08 on October 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Watching the second Obama-McCain debate in Carbondale, Illinois.
I think it was a crushing defeat for McCain, and the CNN snap poll seems to agree. Yet, I’m afraid no matter how far ahead in the polls Obama is, McCain might still win the election, and the reason is race. Someone on the CNN pundit panel brought [...]
