The improbable Ralph Nader comes into play yet again. We must give Nader credit for unflaggingly believing in the potential and importance of oppositional third-party (left) politics in America for damn near forty years. It's disheartening, though predictable enough, to see all debate around Nader's surprise entry into 2008 Presidential politics framed in the language of presumed deciding role in Al Gore's 2000 defeat. Talk about Nader the 'spoiler' end up harming and diminishing discourse around American third-party politics in general, an obvious collective loss. It can be argued that the Green Party leadership should start shifting downwards in terms of the age and dynamism of their figureheads--and, it should be said, Nader can be downright infuriating--but we like seeing at least some suggestion that mainstream electoral politics still reacts to a 'third way.' We'll let Nader speak for himself.
Fran Shor, however, can only shrug her shoulders.
In this vein, Frank Rich riffs on comparisons between the Bush Administration's pre-Iraq war planning and Hillary Clinton's spectacular misfortune on the campaign trail.
Columbia's Hamid Dabashi finds limits to Barack Obama's purportedly innovative political imagination, citing a picture which is (for us) one of the iconic, if well-hid, images of Barack Obama's political career: Obama and wife Michelle dining in Chicago with Edward and Mariam Said.
The Washington Post reports that many Israelis now support a widespread ground campaign in Gaza. So much for disengagement...
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