The Illusory Middle
Victor Navasky : Presidential Election 2008
Moving to the center to woo undecided voters, Obama risks losing his greatest asset: authenticity.
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Obama and King
Adele Oltman : Religion
As Obama accepts his party's presidential nomination on the forty-fifth anniversary of King's most famous speech, a historian looks beyond the obvious analogies.
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Tested, Tried, Untrue
Patricia J. Williams : Racism & Discrimination
Critiques of Obama's suitability for the presidency are bookended by astonishingly contradictory stereotypes.
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Progressives in the Obama Moment
Robert L. Borosage & Katrina vanden Heuvel : Presidential Election 2008
Here's how progressives can ensure Obama's success.
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Obama: McCain Camp Is 'Proud to Be Ignorant'
YouTube : Presidential Election 2008
Barack Obama responds to McCain's energy policy smears in no uncertain terms.
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Change We Can Believe In
Progressive supporters of Barack Obama urge him to stand firm on the principles he so compellingly articulated in the primary. Add your name to this open letter.
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Obama From the Agora
Tom Hayden : History
Assessing Barack Obama's mythic destiny: will he become more Athenian than Spartan?
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Obama: Filling a Vacuum in Berlin
Norman Birnbaum : Germany
A nation whose citizens have been largely turned off to politics held Barack Obama in a fervent embrace, viewing America once again as a place of new possibilities.
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Obama in Israel: One Tough Audience
Hillel Schenker : Israel
The media was enthused, but ordinary Israelis, cynical about their own political leaders, gave Obama a muted reception. The refrain here is "No, they can't," not "Yes, he can."
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Obama on the Brink
Robert Scheer : Presidential Election 2008
Barack Obama is betraying his promise of change and is in danger of becoming just another political hack. Please prove me wrong.
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Obama in Iraq: The Gift of a Timetable
Patrick Cockburn : US Foreign Policy
An Iraqi government desperate for credibility could receive no better gift than Obama's exit plan.
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Obama in Afghanistan: Careful What You Wish For
Graham Usher : Afghanistan
He says Afghanistan is the war America should be fighting. But on this much-ballyhooed listening tour, will he be hearing anything he doesn't already know?
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Indiscreet Conversations
Gary Younge : Presidential Election 2008
Jesse Jackson's gaffe demonstrates that the days of being able to think out loud are over.
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Online Activists Keep the Pressure on Obama
Ari Melber : Presidential Election 2008
If Obama is lucky, he will continue to benefit from these energized, sophisticated activists who support his candidacy while they press his hand.
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Barack at Risk
Tom Hayden : Presidential Election 2008
Barack Obama could put his entire candidacy at risk if his audacity on the war in Iraq continues to shrivel.
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Preaching to the Choir
Max Blumenthal : Religion
With little to lose and everything to gain, Obama has lifted high the cross. But are there invisible strings attached?
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The Audacity of Insiders
The Editors : Presidential Election 2008
Barack Obama may yet become the reform President who rearranges power on behalf of the people. But he'll need to resist the brotherhood of cozy insiders.
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Likable Enough for VP
Robert Scheer : Hillary Clinton
If Obama's looking for a right-of-center running-mate, Hillary's the best option out there.
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Obama's Blind Spot on Israel
Nadia Hijab : Israel
Why is Barack Obama courting right-wing groups like AIPAC and steering clear of the American Jewish left and center?
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The Hope Giver
Alexander Cockburn : Presidential Election 2008
When it comes to American Empire, Obama's change is parsed as running the planet with greater efficiency.
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Mixed Blessing
Tom Hayden : South America
Obama calls for direct dialogue and new trade deals with Latin America, but continued counterinsurgency in Columbia, tensions with Venezuela.
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Obama's GOP Base
John Nichols : Republican Party
Judging by their voting patterns in the primaries, crossover Republicans may swing the presidential election for Barack Obama.
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The Empire Strikes Barack
Humanitainment : Presidential Election 2008
Can the entire narrative of the last few months of the Democratic nomination fight be found in the second Star Wars film?
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Gas Tax Holiday (from Reality)
Talking Points Memo : Presidential Election 2008
As far as Hillary Clinton is concerned, if you disagree with her gas tax plan, you're an elitist.
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A Deeper Black
Ta-Nehisi Coates : Non-Fiction
Shelby Steele's book on Barack Obama, an outdated critique of identity politics, misses the candidate's essential power.
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Can Obama Resurrect Real Conservatism?
Susannah Vila : Politics
A conversation with Andrew Bacevich about what conservatives and progressives can hope for in the post-Bush era.
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Fox News' Obama Lies Are Spreading
Brave New Films : Fox News Network
We'd expect Fox News to cover Barack Obama unfairly, but who knew the so-called "liberal media" would follow their lead so often?
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Pennsylvania's 'Obamicans'
Ari Berman : Pennsylvania
Democratic activism and Obama's campaign have turned Doylestown, Pennsylvania, from solid red to purple--maybe even blue.
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Bowling for Pennsylvania
Gaiutra Bahadur : Pennsylvania
Can Barack Obama get racially mixed communities in Pennsylvania's small towns to bowl together?
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Bitter Fruit in Pennsylvania
Gary Younge : Presidential Election 2008
If Obama's remarks on poor white voters were gauche, the responses they elicited have been galling.
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Maybe One Cheer for Barack Obama
Alexander Cockburn : Presidential Election 2008
He's not a real fighter. He's too pretty and doesn't want to get his looks messed up.
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Progressives for Obama
Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher Jr., Danny Glover & Barbara Ehrenreich : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
The future has arrived: progressives can make a difference to ensure Barack Obama is our next President.
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Obama, Politics and the Pulpit
Christopher Hayes : Presidential Election 2008
The uproar over intemperate remarks by Obama's former pastor reveals all that's repellant in our national discourse over race, religion and politics.
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The People's Ball
Nicholas von Hoffman : Campaigns & Elections
How Saul Alinsky would plan Obama's inauguration, and his government.
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The Working-Class Vote in Ohio
Brett Story & VideoNation : US Politics & Government
What issues matter to Ohio's blue-collar voters? JoAnn Wypijewski reports from the campaign trail.
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Obama, Being Called a Muslim Is Not a Smear
Naomi Klein : Disaster Capitalism
He should denounce the attacks themselves as racist propaganda.
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Less Whining, More Dirt!
Alexander Cockburn : Presidential Election 2008
Obama can take the rhetorical high road, but he should have some mean stokers in the engine room.
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Obama's Mercenary Position
Jeremy Scahill : Iraq War
He calls private security forces "unaccountable" but may use them in Iraq. Meanwhile, Clinton wants to ban them. UPDATED
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'End the War in 2009'
Tom Hayden : Iraq War
Barack Obama has hastened his timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, setting the stage for an election battle with John McCain and the forces of neoconservatism.
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The History of Hope
Peter Dreier : History
Voters drawn to Barack Obama are often criticized as naive. But appeals to our collective hope for a more decent society are core to the American experience.
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Unstoppable Obama
Barbara Ehrenreich
All of us, of whatever race, want a fresh start. That's what "change" means right now: Get us out of here!
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Generation O
Cora Currier : Voters & Voting
The depth and substance of Obama's youth phenomenon has yet to be tested.
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Purple Obama
Bob Moser : Presidential Election 2008
While Obama was winning over Virginians he was not supposed to have a prayer with, McCain was losing some voters he must have.
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Obama's Promise
The Editors : Presidential Election 2008
He offers the best chance to redefine the center of American politics and forge a new progressive majority.
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The Choice
Christopher Hayes : Presidential Election 2008
Here's why Obama is the left's best chance to take back the country.
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Obama, Clinton and the War
Robert Scheer : Hillary Clinton
Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama sheds some needed light on Hillary's hawkishness and the real differences between the candidates.
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A Torch Passed
Amy Alexander : Presidential Election 2008
With a veritable Mount Rushmore of Kennedy faces arrayed behind him, Barack Obama received powerful symbolic and political support from the icons of the liberal establishment.
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Endorsing Obama
Tom Hayden : Presidential Election 2008
The movement he's inspired holds the promise of a new cycle of activism, reform and fresh thinking. So I will support him through the inevitable storms ahead.
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Some Things Even Obama Can't Transcend
Gary Younge : Racism & Discrimination
Before we can talk sensibly about transcending difference, we must first transform the conditions that give these differences meaning.
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Black Women Talk Barack
Amy Alexander : Feminism & Women
It's like one big family squabble among feminists, activists and post-civil-rights-era voters.
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Subprime Obama
Max Fraser : Banks & Banking
He should stiffen his meager bailout plan and call for a moratorium on foreclosures and serious government intervention.
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Bill and Hill's Dangerous Game
Nicholas von Hoffman : Bill Clinton
The Clintons cannot compete with the enthusiasm Obama sets off so they are trying to destroy it. They just may succeed--but at an awful price.
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Racial Politics, Clinton Style
Ari Berman : Hillary Clinton
No matter who injected the issue of race and gender into the Democratic presidential campaign, it's not going away.
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The Weepy Witch & the Secret Muslim
Katha Pollitt : Hillary Clinton
If the campaign becomes a competition between race and gender, the winner will be whichever white man the GOP nominates.
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King's Legacy of Change
Grace Lee Boggs : Civil Rights Movement
No single person can be the agent of change: the vision must come from all of us.
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Obama's Wide Net
Ari Melber : Internet & New Media
His web-driven, self-starting activism could be the key to getting his message out--and bringing young voters to the polls on Super Tuesday.
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American Pie
Patricia J. Williams : Hillary Clinton
Don't let the media or the right-wing spinmeisters reduce our first-ever serious black and female presidential candidates to stereotypes.
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A Season of 'Change'
Jonathan Schell : Presidential Election 2008
Throughout the political sphere--in Democratic and Republican campaigns, in media coverage and pollsters' surveys--the word "change" is bubbling on people's lips. What does it really mean?
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A Night at the Caucus
Ari Berman : Presidential Election 2008
An Iowa native attends his home-town caucus, and discovers deliberative democracy at its freewheeling finest.
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Against Dullness: The Campaigns So Far
Alexander Cockburn
All great seasons in politics begin with excitement. Right now there's none.
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Obama, Race and the Presidency
Ari Melber : Racism & Discrimination
Barack Obama's historic victory in Iowa comes at a crucial time for a nation still grappling with how remedies to offset racism affect America's power structure.
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Too Much of a Bad Thing
Nicholas von Hoffman : Campaign Finance
Hillary Clinton's touting her expertise over Obama--but is experience at political attack, mega-fundraising and cronyism really all that desirable?
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South Carolina: Inside the 'Black Primary'
As Clinton and Obama square off in South Carolina, a window opens on the fractured state of black politics. It's been an extended soul search. And it ain't over yet.
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The Obama Effect
Gary Younge : Civil Rights & Liberties
Have the dreams of the civil rights movement been realized or deferred?
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The Audacity of Oprah
Patricia J. Williams : Presidential Election 2008
The combined power of Oprah & Obama could reinvigorate our embattled political landscape.
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Barack Obama
Michael Eric Dyson : Presidential Election 2008
A visionary candidate for a new America.
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How Different Are the Top Three Dems?
Katha Pollitt : Hillary Clinton
Clinton, Edwards, Obama: behind the branding, they're more similar than you think.
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Clinton and Obama: Running on Ambien
Barbara Ehrenreich : Hillary Clinton
Can America survive the tedium of its black and female candidates?
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Democrats Sizzle in Iowa
It felt a bit like Election Day in Iowa this weekend, as Democratic candidates at Senator Tom Harkin's Steak Fry served up appetizers of the campaign to come.
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Hillary Pushes the Button
Robert Scheer : Hillary Clinton
What in the world was Clinton thinking when she attacked Obama for pledging not to use nuclear weapons in the hunt for Osama bin Laden?
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Jesse Jackson Can't Help Obama
Earl Ofari Hutchinson : African-Americans
Obama thinks Jackson's endorsement will give him a rocket boost with black voters. It won't.
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Obama's Community Roots
Barack Obama's political vision grew out of his early experiences as a community organizer in Chicago.
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L'Étranger
Patricia J. Williams : African-Americans
The media have fashioned an impossible portrait of Barack Obama: an American cleansed of the baggage of racism and slavery.
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Obama's Impressive Youthroots
Barack Obama's youthful supporters are using Facebook and other social networking web tools to spark a movement that could make a real difference.
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Obama's Media Maven
Christopher Hayes : Media Analysis
David Axelrod, Barack Obama's closest political adviser, is applying the lessons he learned from Chicago's ugly racialized politics.
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Obama's Ruined Homeland
In Kenya's Yala Swamp, where Senator Barack Obama traces his African roots, an Oklahoma-based company has wrecked a rich and delicate ecosystem.
This week: How the democrats can best pursue a true progressive economic platform and a fair and just immigration policy? The Nation's Bob Moser, John Nichols and Roberto Lovato debate on these two critical issues. (13mb mp3)
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