Roundup: Media's Take

Max Boot: Bombers and the bailout of Detroit

As far as I’m concerned, the best argument for bailing out Chrysler, GM, and Ford would be if they really were an “an essential part of our industrial base,” as [1] claimed by Rahm Emanuel. Those with memories of World War II–when automobile plants were retooled to turn out the Arsenal of Democracy–might be tempted to agree with him. It would be hard to imagine the Allies defeating Germany and Japan without the contribution of plants such as Ford’s famous Willow Run factory which, at its p

George F. Will: Americans should ponder the profound implications of the long evolution, through six stages, of the presidential-selection process

In a Presidential contest replete with novelties, none was more significant than this: A candidate’s campaign—for his party’s nomination, then for the presidency—was itself virtually the entire validation of his candidacy. Voters have endorsed Barack Obama’s audacious—but not, they have said, presumptuous—proposition, which was: The skill, tenacity, strategic vision and tactical nimbleness of my campaign is proof that I am presidential timber. Because imitation is the sincerest form

Henry Olsen: What Would Reagan Do?

[Mr. Olsen is vice president of the American Enterprise Institute and director of its National Research Initiative.] This is not the first time that conservatives and Republicans have stared into an electoral abyss. After Barry Goldwater's crushing 1964 defeat, most political observers thought the only future for the GOP was to become a centrist party only slightly to the right of Great Society Democrats. Ronald Reagan didn't agree. In a trenchant column penned in the D

Stanley Greenberg: Goodbye, Reagan Democrats

[Stanley B. Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, is the author of the forthcoming “Dispatches From the War Room: In the Trenches With Five Extraordinary Leaders.”] I’M finished with the Reagan Democrats of Macomb County in suburban Detroit after making a career of spotlighting their middle-class anger and frustrations about race and Democratic politicians. Bill Clinton wrote in his autobiography that my “extensive research on the so-called Reagan Democrats and what it would take to bri

Juan Williams: What Obama's Victory Means for Racial Politics

[Mr. Williams, a political analyst for National Public Radio and Fox News, is author of several books, including "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965" (Penguin, 1988).] Barack Obama's election is both an astounding political victory -- and the end of an era for black politics. It is not even 50 years since a group of civil-rights workers challenged racial segregation on interstate bus travel. In 1961, a scared group of young Freedom Ride

Scott Rasmussen: The Polls Show That Reaganism Is Not Dead

[Mr. Rasmussen is president of Rasmussen Reports, an independent national polling company.] Barack Obama won the White House by campaigning against an unpopular incumbent in a time of economic anxiety and lingering foreign policy concerns. He offered voters an upbeat message, praised the nation as a land of opportunity, promised tax cuts to just about everyone, and overcame doubts about his experience with a strong performance in the presidential debates. Does this soun

Alan Ehrenhalt: Will Obama’s Congress Be Too Friendly?

[Alan Ehrenhalt is the editor of Governing magazine.] BARACK OBAMA will be the third Democratic president in the last 40 years. The first two, wildly different as human beings, had one important thing in common: They both got off to a dreadful start. Jimmy Carter failed to win passage of any signature program in his first year, never really recovered, and couldn’t win re-election. Bill Clinton made himself so unpopular that his party was swept out of power in Congress i

Paul Krugman: Franklin Delano Obama?

Suddenly, everything old is New Deal again. Reagan is out; F.D.R. is in. Still, how much guidance does the Roosevelt era really offer for today’s world? The answer is, a lot. But Barack Obama should learn from F.D.R.’s failures as well as from his achievements: the truth is that the New Deal wasn’t as successful in the short run as it was in the long run. And the reason for F.D.R.’s limited short-run success, which almost undid his whole program, was the fact that his economic polic

David Stokes: 1968 ... Lyndon, Dick, and Billy

[Mr. Stokes is the senior pastor of Fair Oaks Church in Fairfax, VA.] Forty years ago, in the wake of the hard-fought 1968 presidential election, the nation faced what many assumed would be a turbulent transition. But it did not turn out that way. Whatever happened later, the country moved from what had been the one of the most divisive campaigns in our history, to a comparatively calm and remarkably orderly (considering the times) transfer of power. This was due, in la

Oliver Stone: I genuinely hope that Obama can be the heir to John F Kennedy

[Oliver Stone's film W is on general release.] For eight years, George W Bush hurt my country deeply. He pushed every button to the extreme, in every which way, and heightened the madness that's possible in this country. He heightened the violence and he heightened the greed. Then came last week and with it hope, elation and great joy. Barack Obama's election was not a landslide, that was clear. He did not carry a lot of the rural areas, and that's going to remain an is

Bill Ayers: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

[ Bill Ayers is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of "Fugitive Days" (Beacon) and co-author, with Bernardine Dohrn, of "Race Course: Against White Supremacy" (Third World Press).] Whew! What was all that mess? I’m still in a daze, sorting it all out, decompressing. Pass the Vitamin C. For the past few years, I have gone about my business, hangin

Laray Polk: Bush’s Library ... The Kurds, Oil and Missing Records

[Laray Polk lives in Dallas, Texas. She is a multi-media artist and writer. Her articles have appeared on CounterPunch, Common Dreams, Znet, Znet Deutschland, Pacific Free Press, Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel, and the Sri Lanka Guardian. ] "How fitting is it that this storied political life that began here in Texas will write its final chapters right here in the good old Lone Star state and right here on this campus. Now the work begins to plan and build the site."

Deepak Tripathi: On A Revolution to Remember

[Deepak Tripathi, former BBC journalist, is writing a book on the presidency of George W Bush. His website is http://deepaktripathi.wordpress.com and he can be reached at DandATripathi@gmail.com.] With the victory of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, America has undergone a revolution. I say this not only for its symbolism, undeniable though it is. The entry of a black man

Joe Nocera: 75 Years Later, a Nation Hopes for Another F.D.R.

“We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we’re going to have to act swiftly to resolve it.” So said Barack Obama on Friday in his first postelection news conference, a pretty good sign that the president-elect had been brushing up on his presidential history. Seventy-five years ago, the last time the country was this close to economic abyss, Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his famous inaugural, the one where he uttered those immortal words, “The only thing

Joshua Trevino: Let Us Not Talk Falsely Now

[Joshua Trevino is the president of Trevino Strategies and Media, Inc., in Sacramento, California. He served as a U.S. Army officer, worked in the Administration of George W. Bush from 2001 through 2004, and at the Pacific Research Institute from 2005 through 2008.] The 48 hours since the election of Barack Obama have been unkind. Friends once thought sensible recount how they burst into tears, or felt proud of America for the first time in eight years, or stood in awe of this histori

Jim Castagnera: How Do You Like the 21st Century So Far?

[Jim Castagnera is the Associate Provost/Associate Council at Rider University. His 17th book, “Al Qaeda Goes to College,” will be published by Greenwood/Praeger next spring.] On Tuesday, November 4th, we Americans made history. As Journalist Bill Moyers pointed out on NPR, the albatross of racism has been lifted from around many American necks. I include myself in this category. I also feel as if the 2008 national election is the first bright spot in a dismal decade.

George F. Will: What Would Goldwater Do?

Graciously conceding as vice president in 1980, Walter Mondale spoke of voters wielding "their staggering power." This year's energized electorate did that, thereby proving, among other things, that bad governance is good for turnout, a fact that should give pause to people who think high rates of voting are unambiguous indicators of civic health. In 2000, George W. Bush won 11 million (29 percent) more votes than Bob Dole won in 1996; in 2004, Bush won 11.6 million (23 pe

James Taranto: Why so few blacks have made it nationally

One of the most memorable election-night images was of Jesse Jackson, tears streaming down his cheeks as he waited for President-elect Obama to speak at his Chicago victory rally. Our thought as we watched: Are those tears of joy or of regret? Our conclusion: probably both. Jackson waxed triumphant yesterday morning on CBS's "The Early Show," saying that Obama "stood overcoming so much. . . . I thought about those who suffered to make it possible--the marchers, the mu

Shelby Steele: Obama's Post-Racial Promise

[Shelby Steele is an author, columnist and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.] For the first time in human history, a largely white nation has elected a black man to be its paramount leader. And the cultural meaning of this unprecedented convergence of dark skin and ultimate power will likely become -- at least for a time -- a national obsession. In fact, the Obama presidency will always be read as an allegory. Already we are as curious about the cultural sig

Alan Wolfe: Why It Took A Black Presidential Candidate To End Our Four-Decade Culture War

There can be no beginning without an ending. Everyone seems to agree that Barack Obama's victory marks a new chapter in American political history. What is not so obvious is that it ends not just one era, but two. First, of course, Obama's victory brings the movement toward racial equality that grew out of the Civil War to its logical political conclusion.... The second era to close with Obama's victory is the one that began with the Newt Gingrich-led attempt to impeach