Randall Kennedy, professor of law at Harvard University and the author, most recently, of “Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal,” writing in the WaPo: […] Whether black onlookers believe that this election was decided “on the real issues” and that Obama was “judged fairly” will be shaped in part by future developments, including the nature of the campaign in its closing weeks (will race-baiting intensify?) and the demographics of the

Shikha Dalmia, senior analyst at the Reason Foundation, writing in the WSJ: […]Mr. Obama’s moral vision presupposes that the key to individual advancement is securing a larger share of a fixed social pie from those who control it. This posture, relevant in premodern patronage systems, is profoundly at odds with the modern, market economy in which individuals don’t have to wrest resources from others to prosper; they have opportunities to

What do we know about Barack Obama, the earl(ier) days? Not much, save what he’s written for us in his pair of autobiographies. But even there, it seems not everyone agrees with his recollections — and didn’t in 2005, well before Barack O! was a Presidential contender. But, you know. Literary license. Self-fulfilling narrative inscription. The vagaries of memory. The incorrigibility of Truth. Hayden White knows what I’m talking ’bout.

Karl, now posting at Patterico’s (where thor isn’t, I guess) looks into the potential bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and names names. Meanwhile, from the WSJ: By taking the rescue option off the table, the U.S. government was declaring that there are limits to its role as backstop-in-chief. A week earlier it had seized mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and months prior had brokered the sale of

Like that whole Canada / NAFTA thing, only this time dealing in lives and insinuating himself into the government of a country no one has told him he wouldn’t be running, even if elected President. BECAUSE OF THE IMPERIALISM! Amir Taheri, NY Post: While campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an

Current protein wisdom administrator: Ya think? From CBS News: CBSNews.com: Your former colleague Howard Wolfson argued that you all unintentionally paved the way for Palin by exposing some of the unfair media coverage that Hillary Clinton received. And, therefore, a lot of the media may now be treating Sarah Palin with kid gloves. Do you agree with that? Mark Penn: Well, no, I think the people themselves saw unfair media

Darleen on the return of the plumbers. Interesting idea from the Dems, I must say: run a campaign based on the platform of a McGovern, but use the tactics of a Nixon. If only Hunter Thompson were around to tell us how to feel about all this… **** update: Steve Diamond calls the story “fanciful.” (h/t Sdferr) Darleen responds.

We all now know (well, with the exception of Matt Damon and a handful of diehards at Dkos) that the Sarah Palin “banned books” list being circulated is an internet hoax, with several of the titles on that list published after Governor Palin attempted to run roughshod over the Constitution. Still, Palin has to answer for the actual record of book banning in Wasilla; and as conservatives, we shouldn’t be

— Which, to be fair to Ms Rhodes, them lonely days and nights in a winterproofed doublewide can be really trying on oversexed reindeer groomers and ice fishing aficionados. At least, that’s what her friends in Manhattan say. Besides, Alaska is barely even a part of the US. Like Mississippi or West Virginia or places like that. Hillbilly outre, as it were. In fact, it’s total anarchy up there, is

Steven Hayward, “Give ’em Hell, Sarah,” WS: Lurking just below the surface of the second-guessing about Sarah Palin’s fitness to be president is the serious question of whether we still believe in the American people’s capacity for self-government, what we mean when we affirm that all American citizens are equal, and whether we tacitly believe there are distinct classes of citizens and that American government at the highest levels is