"It’s been nearly 6 years since the series finale of The West Wing, and more than 12 since the one-hour drama, which [Aaron] Sorkin created and largely wrote, first walked and talked its way through NBC’s Wednesday-night lineup; and yet you might think the series never ended, given the currency it still seems to enjoy in Washington, the frequency with which it comes up in D.C. conversations and is quoted or referenced on political blogs. In part this is because the smart, nerdy—they might prefer “precocious”—kids who grew up in the early part of the last decade worshipping the cool, technocratic charm of Sorkin’s characters have today matured into the young policy prodigies and press operatives who advise, brief, and excuse the behavior of the most powerful people in the country."
posted by zarq on Mar 11, 2012 - 134 comments

Canada declares its "canadacy" in the race for US President (The Canada Party on Twitter; also spotted on HuffPo)
posted by flex on Jan 10, 2012 - 67 comments

One Nation Under Sex. Pornographer and free speech activist Larry Flynt is no stranger to politics, hypocritical politicians, or to writing books on same. But his latest project "One Nation Under Sex", co-written by Columbia lecturer David Eisenbach, and subtitled How the Private Lives of Presidents and First Ladies Shaped America, is nothing less than "a sweeping account of how the sex lives of American presidents have had a tangible effect on American policy and history." Gawker has posted the book's proposal online. [All links SFW.]
posted by stinkycheese on Mar 19, 2010 - 17 comments

On the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party to be their Presidential candidate with a speech so well-crafted that Pat bloody Buchanan couldn't stop raving about it, and had to be cut off by his fellow broadcasters. It was an occasion so historic that McCain chose to release an ad congratulating his opponent.
posted by WCityMike on Aug 28, 2008 - 235 comments

"Then my photography started to shift; everything had to be very clean and Republican, straight and perfect... Everything is staged and controlled... It's the complete opposite of war photography."
War photographer Christopher Morris's new exhibit and book: "My America".
posted by matteo on Sep 27, 2006 - 20 comments

Missing him already? His fellow Americans will miss him - more, perhaps, than they realise. They'll miss the two terms of peace and record prosperity, of course, but they might even miss the psychodrama: an eight-year roller-coaster ride so turbulent that those who followed it become queasy at the recollection. They'll miss the daily triumphs and disasters of a character of Shakespearean complexity, a President who stirred in Americans passions of love and hatred unseen since the days of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon - and almost never aroused by a single man. Above all, they will miss his signature feature, one that may well have redefined the presidency itself: an almost eerie gift for empathy.
posted by murray_kester on Nov 9, 2000 - 2 comments