Month: November 2008

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Obama’s economic advisors are not a “team of rivals” — they’re a team of Rubins, the same people who brought us the 1999 Clinton deregulation that produced the financial collapse.   ROBERT KUTTNER will comment – he’s co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and author of Obama’s Challenge.

Also: The continuing battle against Prop. 8: TORIE OSBORN comments — her piece “Push Back on Prop. 8” appears in The Nation this week.

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment: AL FRANKEN will win the recount by 27 votes, according to the celebrated statistician Nate Silver.  We’ll listen to more of our 2003 interview with Al Franken, when Fox News sued him for the title of his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

Also: “Guyland” is the world of white, middle class males aged 16 to 26 whose passions are limited to sports, video games, and depersonalized sex – a world where the number one task is to demonstrate to the other guys that you’re not gay.  Sociologist MICHAEL KIMMEL will talk about this ugly, frightening place.  His book is titled (of course) Guyland The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men.

More stuff to read: my new piece on Nate Silver’s prediction that Al Franken will win by 27 votes at TheNation.com.

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Obama is appointing lots of Clintonians–does that means he will NOT bring us the change we need?  HAROLD MEYERSON will explain — he is op-ed columnist for the Washington Post and editor at large of The American Prospect magazine. (New Yorker illustration: Richard Thompson)

TARIQ ALI says “victory” there would require 200,000 troops and massive carpet bombing.  Tariq’s new book is The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power.

And: The spoof “New York Times Special Edition” is a work of satirical genius–Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men will tell all.

Your Minnesota Moment: the recount in Al Franken’s senate race begins today.  We’ll revisit our 2003 interview with Al Franken, when Fox News sued him for the title of his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

More stuff to read: my new piece at TheNation.com, “McCain’s Favorite TV Show, ’24,’ Brings Torture Back Sunday”

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JEFFREY TOOBIN talks about Obama’s tasks – and the next Supreme Court.  Jeff’s best-selling book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court is out now in paperback. He’s a staff writer for The New Yorker covering legal affairs and a CNN senior analyist.

Also: The “No on 8” campaign defending gay marriage: what went wrong? RICK JACOBS will comment — he’s head of the Courage Campaign and he chaired Howard Dean’s 2003 presidential campaign in California.

Plus: Is Sarah Palin the future of the Republican Party?  THOMAS FRANK will examine the possibilities – his new book is The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, and he writes a weekly column for The Wall Street Journal.

Your Minnesota Moment: AL FRANKEN  is behind in his Senate race by about 200 votes, and his chances of winning the recount are pretty good: details HERE.

And we’ll pay tribute to three of our greats who died in the last week: Miriam Makeba the singer, John Leonard the literary critic, and Studs Terkel the author and hero of radio.

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How we did it: HAROLD MEYERSON analyzes the campaigns, and the results.  Harold is editor at large of The American Prospect and writes for the op-ed page of the Washington Post.

Also: Obama and History: ERIC FONER comments on the significance of America electing a black man as president.  Eric is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia U.,  and author of many books, most recently Our Lincoln.  His new essay in The Nation, “Rooted in Reconstruction,” explores the roots of black politics in America.

Plus: Obama’s first tasks: ERWIN CHEMERINSKY discusses what Obama needs to do with Gitmo, the Patriot Act, and civil liberties and civil rights.  Erwin is dean of the new law school at UC Irvine and an authority on constitutional law and civil liberties.

And: Your Minnesota moment: JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation explains what happened with Al Franken’s senate campaign – he lost by 477 votes, while Obama won by 300,000.

More stuff to read: my new piece at TheNation,com, “Life After Election Day: No more Todd, no more Track, no more Bristol.”