A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Barack Obama

  • The speech

    I haven’t read much of the commentary, but I thought this Obama speech was pretty darn brilliant. Not only did he convincingly refute the worries that he was too close to his fiery and eccentric pastor, he wove the issue into a broader narrative about race, resentment, and injustice in America. Not only that, but Read more

  • Obama and interventionism

    I was skeptical of this article on Obama’s approach to foreign policy because I think Brendan O’Neill and the rest of the Spiked crew often bend over backwards to be contrarian. But he makes some legitimate points. Obama, while still preferable to the other candidates, isn’t a bona fide peacenik. I do think O’Neill stretches Read more

  • Obama’s climate plan

    Gristmill’s Joseph Romm offers a defense. Read more

  • Pro-life and pro-Obama

    Interesting post from Frank Schaeffer (son of the famed evangelical guru Francis Schaeffer). Schaeffer’s piece does have a whiff of the Obama-as-messiah meme, though, with its insistence that Obama can lead us to a “spiritual rebirth, a turning away from the false value of consumerism and utilitarianism that have trumped every aspect of human life. Read more

  • A conservative for Obama

    Jeffrey Hart, longtime National Review editor and former speechwriter for both Nixon and Reagan, is feeling the Obama magic. The “conservatives for Obama” phenomenon is interesting. More here and here. Read more

  • The case for Obama

    Chris Hayes makes it at the Nation. Not being a progressive in good standing myself, I can’t go along with everything he says, but this, for me, is key: But while domestic policy will ultimately be determined through a complicated and fraught interplay with legislators, foreign policy is where the President’s agenda is implemented more Read more

  • Obama in SC

    I’ve been an Obama skeptic (I don’t much care for his rhetoric about transforming politics in some kind of great transcendent leap forward), but even my stony heart was moved a bit by his victory in South Carolina and the ensuing speech: Realistically speaking, I think he’s our best bet, which is probably about as Read more

  • Obama: left-libertarian?

    Interesting view, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch. Read more

  • More thoughts on Obama

    I was maybe excessively churlish about Barack Obama in this post. All things considered, I think an Obama candidacy (as opposed to a Clinton candidacy) would be a good thing. His positions on climate change and energy policy in particular strike me as among the best in the field, and that’s no small matter. I Read more

  • Obama the green

    Grist is impressed with Barack Obama’s energy plan. Overall I’ve been underwhelmed by Obama and have had a hard time understanding the enthusiasm of certain of my Democratic friends. But we could do a lot worse than a President with an ambitious plan to tackle climate change and a commitment to a more rational foreign Read more