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I have always held in this race that while of course we shouldn’t vote for a presidential candidate based on something as skin deep as skin color, that nonetheless all things being equal in terms of character, temperament, policy proposals, principles, and priorities, that there is a crucial psychological bonus to having a black president. [...]
Archive for June, 2008
Barack Obama’s Most Important Achievement Regardless of What Follows
June 26th, 2008 
Daniel Fincke 
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Chris Dodd Standing Up Against Retroactive Immunity For Telecoms
June 25th, 2008 Daniel Fincke An important speech.
The Theocratic Mindset of James Dobson
June 24th, 2008 Daniel Fincke As something of a Rawlsian about public discourse, I have no problem with religious people arguing in government for application of ideals that they personally discovered through their religion or their sacred texts, their religious institutions, etc. as long as they respect the need to give reasons that are publicly accessible, reasons that do not [...]
The Substance of Style
June 24th, 2008 Daniel Fincke Amidst an insightful piece on Obama’s use of language, there’s this interesting thesis about what style indicates about substance. How much can you tell about a candidate’s fitness to lead a country based on a single clause? The substance/style debate has been around for centuries—and, like all the other venerable binaries, is probably best considered [...]
George Will Endorsing A Form of Liberal Paternalism??
June 23rd, 2008 Daniel Fincke Fascinating article about what sounds like a fascinating book. Thaler and Sunstein correctly assume that people are busy, their lives are increasingly complicated and they have neither time nor inclination nor, often, the ability to think through even all important choices, from health care plans to retirement options. Therefore the framing of choices matters, particularly [...]
Obama Speaks In Politician and I Translate For the Readers At Home
June 20th, 2008 Daniel Fincke Flip-flopping on NAFTA, Obama explains his position in his native politician language: “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA “devastating” and “a big mistake,” despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy. [...]
Obama’s Embellishments
June 19th, 2008 Daniel Fincke I like Obama a lot for a lot of reasons, but I’ve never bought into the myth that he’s not a scheming politician at his core. So, this article doesn’t surprise me but it’s still disappointing.
Daily Hilarity: Photo Intruders
June 19th, 2008 Daniel Fincke A pretty hilarious series of photos wherein people in the background intentionally or unintentionally “ruin” (or in some cases make) the photo.
Ouch
June 16th, 2008 Daniel Fincke Just read this description of Hillary and Obama meeting in the halls at the AIPAC conference the day after he clinched the nomination. http://nymag.com/news/politics/47837/ The scene unfolding in front of me is a semiotician’s fantasia. For months, Clinton and Obama have battled (and battered) each other more or less as equals. But now there is [...]
The Effects of Writing Medium on Writing Style?
June 16th, 2008 Daniel Fincke I’m really not sure that this is a very accurate inference about the nature of Nietzsche’s shift in writing style from his early works into his middle phase, but it’s interesting to ponder nonetheless: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google Sometime in 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter—a Malling-Hansen Writing Ball, to be precise. His vision was failing, and keeping [...]
Quote of the day
June 4th, 2008 Daniel Fincke From a New York Times profile on quotes Obama: “I love when I’m shaking hands on a rope line and”— he mimes the motion, hand over hand — “I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They’re feeding on each other as much [...]
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