Quemoy, Matsu, and Joe the Plumber

Few Americans remember Quemoy and Matsu, but they were a key issue in the 1960 debates between Kennedy and Nixon.  These Taiwanese-governed islands lie just off the coast of mainland China.  A couple of times during the 1950s, the communists had shelled these islands,...

Putting On Ayers

There is now a website on which fellow academics are invited to express solidarity with the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Education’s Distinguished Professor: It seems that the character assassination and slander of Bill Ayers and other people who...

The Mulligan At The Sullivan

Late this afternoon, John McCain will at last —at long last— stride onstage at the Ed Sullivan Theater, acknowledge the applause, shake hands with the host, and sit down in the guest chair.  The first order of business will be taking his medicine from...

Frost/Nixon’s First Night

Ron Howard’s film Frost/Nixon made its debut in Leicester Square last night, as the opener of the London Film Festival.  And the early reviews (four of them, and from the quality papers as you might expect) are now in. But before we get to them —second...

Some Thoughts On The Final Debate

I think Antonio Gonzalez, head of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, was correct when he said on the Tavis Smiley show tonight that while Sen. John McCain scored the most points in tonight’s debate with Sen. Barack Obama, he did not score a...