Salon.com > Obama http://www.salon.com Mon, 20 May 2013 02:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 6 reasons Obama is losing the left http://www.salon.com/2013/05/16/6_reasons_obamas_popularity_is_likely_to_plummet_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/16/6_reasons_obamas_popularity_is_likely_to_plummet_partner/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 18:30:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13300703 AlterNetIt’s not just the scandal fever that’s invaded Washington, where the Obama White House is dodging accusations that the IRS went after the Tea Party, or it lied in the fog of war in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the embassy in Libya, or the Justice Department went too far in spying on Associated Press to find out who was leaking details about the the CIA’s secret wars.

Obama’s popularity seems destined to slide downhill as his second term unfolds, even if polls taken just before this latest political moment show that Obama’s core supporters are still with him. Looking beyond this week’s accusatory headlines, there are a handful of single issues that will resonate among key Democratic constituencies and big-picture economic issues that seem destined to push Obama’a ratings down. He may not end his presidency in the low 20s like George W. Bush. But it’s not a stretch to say that Obama’s 51 percent approval ratings last week may be the best that he will see this term.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/16/6_reasons_obamas_popularity_is_likely_to_plummet_partner/feed/ 64 Obama’s wiretap America http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/obamas_wiretap_america/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/obamas_wiretap_america/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 17:29:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13292877 Did the surveillance state just take another gigantic Big Brotherish step forward? The New York Times and Washington Post are reporting that the Obama administration is planning to support an FBI plan for "a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than by traditional phone services."

Facebook posts, Skype calls, Google chats, Apple's iMessage -- under the new plan, every form of Internet communication would have to be accessible to law enforcement wiretapping. Civil libertarians, Internet companies and privacy activists are all understandably unenthused. A blogger at FireDogLake immediately labeled the news proof that Obama intended to support the "end of the 4th Amendment on the Internet."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/obamas_wiretap_america/feed/ 17 Steven Spielberg’s surprise “Lincoln” follow-up http://www.salon.com/2013/04/28/steven_spielbergs_surprise_lincoln_follow_up/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/28/steven_spielbergs_surprise_lincoln_follow_up/#comments Sun, 28 Apr 2013 03:13:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13283982 As part of a White House Correspondents' Dinner gag, Stephen Spielberg debuted a teaser of his next big presidential biopic. Surprisingly, he's decided to bring back "Daniel Day-Lewis" for the title role...

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/28/steven_spielbergs_surprise_lincoln_follow_up/feed/ 3 Obama’s CISPA privacy surprise http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/obamas_cispa_privacy_surprise/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/obamas_cispa_privacy_surprise/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:52:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13273187 It's a sign of just how badly the Obama administration's record on civil liberties is regarded that the first reaction to the news that the White House is threatening to veto the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) was a sense of surprise.

CISPA is designed to make it easier for private companies to share information about "cybersecurity" issues -- hacker attacks, Chinese sabotage, etc. --  with government agencies. Under CISPA companies such as Facebook or Microsoft could freely hand over personal information -- emails, texts, news feed postings -- without having to worry about potential negative consequences, including litigation from outraged users. Naturally, CISPA enjoys wide support from by the tech lobby; IBM sent more than 200 executives to Washington this week to push for its passage. The bill also enjoys bipartisan backing. The House of Representatives is set to vote on the bill either Wednesday or Thursday.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/obamas_cispa_privacy_surprise/feed/ 6 Obama’s BRAIN gets hammered http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/obamas_brain_gets_hammered/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/obamas_brain_gets_hammered/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:41:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13271379 If only we had access to technology that would allow us to accurately map all the brain activity going on at a single moment inside the skull of a particular human. Such technology would allow us to conduct some fun and instructive neuroscience experiments. For example, we could compare the changes in synaptic action in the brains of neuroscientists before and after they read a letter sent April 12 by Larry Swanson, the president of the Society for Neuroscience, to all 42,000 members of his association. (Hat tip to science writer extraordinaire, Ed Yong, for the news.)

BEFORE: Your everyday snapshot of the neurochemical and electrical activity in the brain of a scientist going about her or his normal business. Incredibly complicated, yes, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

AFTER: All hell breaks loose! We've got damage reports pouring in from every sector, captain!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/obamas_brain_gets_hammered/feed/ 5 Can Victoria Jackson return from the fringe? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/10/can_victoria_jackson_return_from_the_fringe/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/10/can_victoria_jackson_return_from_the_fringe/#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13221283 Victoria Jackson's career was nonexistent. So when the daffy blonde comedian who sang and strummed her ukulele through six silly seasons on "Saturday Night Live" decided to embrace her religious roots and become one of the zaniest and most incendiary Tea Party celebrities, well, she didn't have a lot of other opportunities.

"I didn't have anything to lose," she says, from her home in the Miami area.

On "SNL" from 1986-92, Jackson starred with Jon Lovitz, Al Franken, Chris Rock, Nora Dunn, Phil Hartman and Julia Sweeney, and was a quirky yet beloved member of one of the 38-year-old show's most enduring casts. But recently she's had more in common with Dennis Miller: In 2007, Jackson had a political awakening and "realized" then–presidential candidate Barack Obama was a communist. Radical Islam, she came to believe, was infiltrating and infecting America.

Suddenly the sketch comic best known for turning cartwheels on the Weekend Update desk was making headlines of her own by blasting gay marriage, Muslims and Occupy Wall Street on conservative talk-radio shows and creating goofy sound bites and song parodies that found a home on Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and, yes, Miller's shows.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/10/can_victoria_jackson_return_from_the_fringe/feed/ 176 Did Trump’s birtherism stain “Apprentice”? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/donald_trump_talks_to_salon_about_apprentice_ratings_his_2012_presidential_flirtation/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/donald_trump_talks_to_salon_about_apprentice_ratings_his_2012_presidential_flirtation/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13218359 Donald Trump's "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice," the spring reality show uniting past contestants like Dennis Rodman, Gary Busey and La Toya Jackson, won its second hour last night among adults aged 18-49. But overall the news was mixed: Viewership was down from previous "Celebrity Apprentice" debuts, to 5.1 million people over the two-hour season premiere. (Last year's premiere got 7.4 million viewers; in 2011, that number was 7.93 million.)

"We're very happy with the 10 o'clock hour," Trump told Salon in an interview on Monday. "And after four episodes, it goes to 10 o'clock. So it's really the 10 o'clock hour."

"We beat everybody. We beat every other network," Trump said. "That's our hour. We serve as our own lead-in." (Last night on NBC, the first hour of "Apprentice" followed the newsmagazine "Dateline.")

Trump refused to brook questioning as to whether NBC -- which has collapsed in the ratings so far in 2013, slipping to fifth place after Univision in the February sweeps -- might not be the ideal home for a TV show.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/donald_trump_talks_to_salon_about_apprentice_ratings_his_2012_presidential_flirtation/feed/ 17 With sequester, Dems should hit GOP where it hurts http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/in_sequester_showdown_dems_should_hit_gop_where_it_hurts_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/in_sequester_showdown_dems_should_hit_gop_where_it_hurts_partner/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:29:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13212502 The White House apparently believes the best way to strengthen its hand in the upcoming “sequester” showdown with Republicans is to tell Americans how awful the spending cuts will be, and blame Republicans for them.

It won’t work. These tactical messages are getting in the way of the larger truth, which the President must hammer home: The Republicans’ austerity economics and trickle-down economics are dangerous, bald-faced lies.

Yes, the pending spending cuts will hurt. But even if some Americans begin to feel the pain when the cuts go into effect Friday, most won’t feel it for weeks or months, if ever.

Half are cuts in the military, which will have a huge impact on jobs (the military is America’s only major jobs program), but the cuts will be felt mainly in states with large numbers of military contractors, and then only as those contractors shed employees.

The other half are cuts in domestic discretionary spending, which will largely affect lower-income Americans. There will be sharp reductions in federal aid to poor schools, nutrition assistance, housing assistance, and the like. But here again, most Americans won’t see these cuts or feel them.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/in_sequester_showdown_dems_should_hit_gop_where_it_hurts_partner/feed/ 19 Betty Friedan started a revolution — and we’re still not there yet http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/betty_friedans_feminist_mistake/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/betty_friedans_feminist_mistake/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13200237 Middle age is not generous to females. A man in his sixth decade can, like Alec Baldwin just this week did, proudly announce imminent parenthood with one's yoga instructor spouse. He can be a George Clooney, appearing on magazine covers looking like the guy every guy wants to be. But for women, it's different. As Tina Fey once said, "The definition of 'crazy' … is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to fuck her anymore." And that would generally be sometime soon after 30. But Betty Freidan's groundbreaking "Feminine Mystique," which turns 50 this week, is celebrating its milestone by getting a fresh shower of attention -- showing both just how remarkably it's aged and how stunningly topical it still is.

Friedan's book was a wallop of a tome, a peek behind the placid façade of the happy homemaker and into the dark heart of a seemingly enviable segment of American womanhood. Educated women, with their nice families and pretty homes, Friedan revealed, weren't fulfilled by staying at home and waxing their floors. They needed more. And by starting the conversation about that need, by making it OK for women to want something else, Friedan helped start a revolution.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/betty_friedans_feminist_mistake/feed/ 8 Right-wing conspiracy alert: Google is working for Obama http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/right_wing_conspiracy_alert_google_is_working_for_obama/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/right_wing_conspiracy_alert_google_is_working_for_obama/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:47:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13199914 The right wing has its own news network and its own version of Wikipedia. Is a conservative search engine the next natural step?

That's the only logical conclusion one can draw from a very worried post at RedState warning that Google may be operating as a "private intelligence agency" for the Democratic Party.

I stress the word "may" here because author Ben Howe doesn't include any, you know, evidence in his article demonstrating that Google is Obama's secret weapon, but still, it's pretty scary! -- "Every time you use Google or Gmail you could be contributing just a little bit more of your behavioral data to the left."

Howe's working assumption is that the 2012 Obama campaign's well-known superiority on the technological front could and should be linked to Google's well-known leftist sympathies. (Joe Biden did a Google+ "hangout" on gun control! The company supports "net neutrality" -- which everyone knows is just a whisker away from state seizure of the means of online production). From there it's just a hop, skip and jump to Google reading your email and reporting its contents to the commissars in the White House.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/right_wing_conspiracy_alert_google_is_working_for_obama/feed/ 13 Seven hours on line to vote http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/president_obama_on_long_voting_lines_we_need_to_fix_that_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/president_obama_on_long_voting_lines_we_need_to_fix_that_partner/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:06:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13199854 ProPublica
 At last night's State of the Union address, Michelle Obama was be joined by 102-year-old Desiline Victor, who, like many in Florida and elsewhere, waited hours to vote on Election Day.

“By the way,” Obama said in his election speech. “We have to fix that.”

But how to fix it remains unclear.

Though new research on states’ performance in the November election reveals long lines kept thousands from voting, there’s still much we don’t know about what would best speed up the process.

Victor’s home state of Florida had the longest average wait time of any state at 45 minutes. Victor waited for three hours. Other Floridians reported standing in line for up to 7 hours.

Not every voter had Victor’s stamina: Professor Theodore Allen at Ohio State University estimated that long lines in Florida deterred at least 201,000 people, using a formula based on voter turnout data and poll closing time. The number only includes people discouraged by the wait at their specific polling site, and not those who stayed home due to “the general inconvenience of election day.” The real number, Allen says, is likely much higher. One study also showed that black and Hispanic voters nationwide waited longer on average than white voters.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/president_obama_on_long_voting_lines_we_need_to_fix_that_partner/feed/ 9 Obama calls NKorea test “highly provocative” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/obama_calls_nkorea_test_highly_provocative/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/obama_calls_nkorea_test_highly_provocative/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:38:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13198511

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Tuesday called North Korea's latest nuclear test a "highly provocative act" that threatens U.S. security and international peace.

"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community," Obama said in a statement issued early Tuesday. "The United States will also continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies."

North Korea said it successfully detonated a miniaturized nuclear device at a northeastern test site Tuesday. South Korean, U.S. and Japanese seismic monitoring agencies said they detected an earthquake in North Korea with a magnitude between 4.9 and 5.2.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said the test was conducted safely but with "great explosive power." It said the test is aimed at coping with "ferocious" U.S. hostility that undermines the North's peaceful, sovereign right to launch satellites. Last month, North Korea's National Defense Commission said the United States was its prime target for a nuclear test and long-range rocket launches.

"These provocations do not make North Korea more secure," Obama said. "Far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery."

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in remarks Tuesday morning to Pentagon workers gathered in the building's courtyard, said the U.S. is going to have to continue to deal with rogue states like North Korea.

"We just saw what North Korea has done in these last few weeks, a missile test and now a nuclear test," he said. "They represent a serious threat to the United States of America, and we've got to be prepared to deal with that. "

The White House said Obama, who is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, had already intended to mention North Korea in the speech, describing the North's action as part of a pattern of provocative behavior that has undercut its government's legitimacy.

"The president will say that the only way North Korea will rejoin the world community is if they stop these threats and live up to their international obligations," said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, California Republican Ed Royce, released a statement Tuesday calling on the Obama administration to "replace its failed North Korea policy" and issue "stringent sanctions" against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime. "Otherwise, the grave North Korean threat to the region and the United States will only grow," Royce said.

And House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., added that the U.S. must take a new approach to dealing with North Korea. "The key to stemming North Korea's cycle of provocation is to seriously engage the Chinese in exercising leverage over their neighbor," he said.

The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Tuesday morning on North Korea's nuclear test. South Korea's U.N. Mission informed reporters early Tuesday that the closed-door meeting will begin at 9 a.m. EST.

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said she expects the international community "will have a very firm response."

She said in an appearance on NBC's "Today" show that North Korea's move presents a threat to the region and to the United States. "It actually is not in the best interests of North Korea," she said.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed North Korea's "continued provocative rhetoric" in a phone call with China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. That followed earlier conversations with Kerry's counterparts from Japan and South Korea, key U.S. allies in the region.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the three conversations "were remarkably similar" on the importance of implementing the commitments of a January U.N. resolution that toughened sanctions against Pyongyang and warned of "significant action" if it conducted a nuclear test. That resolution was supported by China, North Korea's only major ally.

On Tuesday, China expressed firm opposition to the test but called for a calm response by all sides.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/obama_calls_nkorea_test_highly_provocative/feed/ 2 Shonda Rhimes: “Calling a show a ‘guilty pleasure’ — it’s like saying it’s a piece of crap” http://www.salon.com/2013/02/10/shonda_rhimes_calling_a_show_a_guilty_pleasure_%e2%80%94_it%e2%80%99s_like_saying_its_a_piece_of_crap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/10/shonda_rhimes_calling_a_show_a_guilty_pleasure_%e2%80%94_it%e2%80%99s_like_saying_its_a_piece_of_crap/#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13194004 Shonda Rhimes, the creator of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal" and the recently ended "Private Practice," is one of the most prolific and powerful creative forces working in network television. (Only Chuck Lorre, who has three sitcoms on CBS, has as many series on the air.) In its ninth season, "Grey's" remains one of the most highly rated dramas on television. In its second, "Scandal" has hit its bonkers creative stride. This season the series, about political fixer Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) having an affair with the president, has staged an assassination attempt and exposed the vote-rigging plot that got the president elected in the first place. It is simultaneously ultra-cynical and overly romantic, and week in and week out, the ballsiest show on television (and by far the most fun to talk about). Rhimes spoke with me about why everyone keeps insisting Olivia Pope is a good guy, how much she hates it when people call "Scandal" a guilty pleasure, and her bafflement by the lack of racial diversity on TV in 2013.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/10/shonda_rhimes_calling_a_show_a_guilty_pleasure_%e2%80%94_it%e2%80%99s_like_saying_its_a_piece_of_crap/feed/ 7 What the Hagel hearings mean http://www.salon.com/2013/01/31/what_the_hagel_hearings_mean/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/31/what_the_hagel_hearings_mean/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13187056 He’s been battered by big-money conservative groups looking to derail his bid for secretary of defense. Critics say he wants to end America’s nuclear program. They claim he’s anti-Israel and soft on Iran. So you can expect intense questioning -- if only for theatrical effect -- about all of the above (and undoubtedly then some) as Chuck Hagel faces his Senate confirmation hearings today.

You can be sure of one other thing: Hagel’s military service in Vietnam will be mentioned -- and praised. It’s likely, however, to be in a separate and distinct category, unrelated to the pointed questions about current issues like defense priorities, his beliefs on the use of force abroad, or the Defense Department’s role in counterterrorism operations. You can also be sure of this: no senator will ask Chuck Hagel about his presence during the machine-gunning of an orphanage in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta or the lessons he might have drawn from that incident.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/31/what_the_hagel_hearings_mean/feed/ 4 Study: Racism up post-Obama http://www.salon.com/2013/01/22/study_racism_up_post_obama/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/22/study_racism_up_post_obama/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13178685 Pacific Standard As he looks back on his first term, President Barack Obama can take satisfaction from a series of significant accomplishments. But according to a new analysis by a Brown University political scientist, his rise to power has also produced a less-welcome result: A renewed alignment between political preference and “old-fashioned racism.”

Old-school racist beliefs were “unrelated to white Americans’ partisan preferences throughout the post-civil rights era,” writes Michael Tesler. But his analysis of survey data, recently published in the Journal of Politics, suggests that changed with the 2008 election—and was also a factor in the 2010 mid-terms.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/22/study_racism_up_post_obama/feed/ 40 Toast Obama’s inauguration with a Gerry Mandarin! http://www.salon.com/2013/01/21/toast_obamas_inauguration_with_a_gerry_mandarin/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/21/toast_obamas_inauguration_with_a_gerry_mandarin/#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13176145 Rosie Schaap, the drinks columnist for the New York Times Magazine, spoke with us about her new memoir, "Drinking With Men," which comes out from Riverhead Books on Thursday. As a bonus, Schaap has created this special cocktail for Salon, to toast the inauguration of President Barack Obama's second term.

So today we'll be raising a coupe full to the president and to Vice-President Joe Biden. And to Rosie on her publication (thanks for the drink!). And to you, our readers!

Cheers!

 

The Gerry Mandarin

Created by Rosie Schaap.

For one cocktail:

2 oz rye

1/4 oz. sweet Vermouth

The juice of one half of a small Mandarin orange

Two dashes Scrappy's celery bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a thick strip of Mandarin peel, from which the pith has been removed.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/21/toast_obamas_inauguration_with_a_gerry_mandarin/feed/ 0 Is the presidential campaign book dead? http://www.salon.com/2013/01/15/is_the_presidential_campaign_book_dead/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/15/is_the_presidential_campaign_book_dead/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:53:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13170886 After the death of Richard Ben Cramer — whose "What It Takes: The Way to the White House" beautifully crystallized the 1988 campaign but was harshly received by his campaign-trail colleagues — and given the success of John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's dull, gossipy book and HBO's movie adaptation of "Game Change," it's hard not to feel as though the campaign book is dead. The long-form, retrospective appraisal of the quadrennial cycle used to be done by Newsweek. Now BuzzFeed is attempting to get in the game with correspondent Michael Hastings' often-profane "Panic 2012: The Sublime and Terrifying Inside Story of Obama's Final Campaign." The book, which tells of Hastings' often contentious relationship with the Obama press shop during the campaign and with other reporters, comes out today. We spoke with Hastings about the difficulty of writing long form and of brokering access to political figures.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/15/is_the_presidential_campaign_book_dead/feed/ 2 Richard Blanco will be first openly gay, Latino poet to read at Obama’s inauguration http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/richard_blanco_will_be_first_latino_poet_to_read_at_obamas_inauguration/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/richard_blanco_will_be_first_latino_poet_to_read_at_obamas_inauguration/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:12:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13165755 Spanish-born Richard Blanco, 44, has been lifted from the relatively obscure realm of poetry to the world stage today, as the Presidential Inaugural Committee has announced that the poet will read at President Obama's 2013 inauguration on Jan. 21. Blanco is the fifth poet to hold the honor since Robert Frost read at the ceremony ushering in President John F. Kennedy in 1961. He will also be the youngest poet, as well as the first Latino and openly gay poet, to read at the ceremony.

The inaugural committee’s spokeswoman Addie Whisenant told the New York Times that Obama selected Blanco because the poet’s “deeply personal poems are rooted in the idea of what it means to be an American.” Blanco similarly expressed a kinship with the President, saying that the two see America in similar ways. Talking to the Times via phone, Blanco said,“Since the beginning of the campaign, I totally related to his life story and the way he speaks of his family, and of course his multicultural background," adding, “There has always been a spiritual connection in that sense. I feel in some ways that when I’m writing about my family, I’m writing about him.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/richard_blanco_will_be_first_latino_poet_to_read_at_obamas_inauguration/feed/ 0 Obama named Time’s person of the year http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/obama_named_times_person_of_the_year/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/obama_named_times_person_of_the_year/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:12:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13149515 President Barack Obama has been named Time's "Person of the Year" for 2012.

The selection was announced Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show.

The short list for the honor included Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head for advocating for girls' education.

It also included Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Obama also received the honor in 2008, when he was President-elect.

Last year, "The Protester" got the honor.

Time's "Person of the Year" is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill. In 2010, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg received the honor.

Other previous winners have included Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Bono and President George W. Bush.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/obama_named_times_person_of_the_year/feed/ 4 “1600 Penn”: A political satire that’s short on wonkiness, big on wackiness http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/1600_penn_a_political_satire_thats_short_on_wonkiness_big_on_wackiness/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/1600_penn_a_political_satire_thats_short_on_wonkiness_big_on_wackiness/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:06:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148515 There are a lot of fictional politicians milling about the television these days. There’s Leslie Knope, State’s Attorney Peter Florrick, President Fitzgerald Grant, and Vice Presidents Selina Meyer and William Walden. Until recently, Kelsey Grammar was the mayor of Chicago on “Boss” and Sigourney Weaver was a version of Hillary Clinton on “Political Animals.” There are various Defense and State Department officials on “Last Resort,” a mayoral race in “Nashville,” and soon there will be all of Capitol Hill in Netflix’s forthcoming “House of Cards.” As of last night there are also the Gilchrists, America’s first family and the stars of “1600 Penn,” a new sitcom that sneak-previewed on NBC and will begin airing regularly in January.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/1600_penn_a_political_satire_thats_short_on_wonkiness_big_on_wackiness/feed/ 4