Jimmy Carter

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Does Obama have the cojones to win?

This WTF moment
To make sense of this bizarre and dispiriting moment in American politics, here are the things one needs to appreciate.
By EDITORIAL | July 27, 2011

Larry Flynt on the end of days, and why politicians can't keep it in their pants

Great hustle
Larry Flynt is no stranger to religious freaks. He's been one himself — converted aboard his private jet, back in 1977, by Jimmy Carter's sister.
By SCOTT FAYNER | May 19, 2011

Democrats against Obama

Even before the rout at the polls, Democrats were nervous about their President. The left felt sold out, and moderates were frightened. Now it's payback time.
Now that the midterm wipeout has concluded, analysts are already sizing up the GOP challengers to a weakened Barack Obama. Not only that: some Democratic party elders are considering the once-unthinkable scenario of a debilitating challenge to Barack Obama from inside his party.
By STEVEN STARK | November 03, 2010

Setting the stage for November

Post-primary musings
It's been more than a week since the June 8 primary election, which saw Republican PAUL LEPAGE (Waterville mayor and Marden's exec) beat a large field of better-financed competitors, and LIBBY MITCHELL (state senate president) pull out ahead of the Democratic pack, poised to become Maine's first-ever female governor.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 16, 2010

Say what?

Obama should forget the feel-good and seize the opportunity in the Gulf
Barack Obama is much more of an establishment-style president than the public generally realizes.
By EDITORIAL | June 22, 2010

Amazing grace

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival carries on
The morning after I get back from the 41st annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, an oil executive is on the radio: “We’re throwing everything we have at it.” Meaning the exploded BP-leased well in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
By JON GARELICK | May 04, 2010

Elena Kagan’s shaky record

What a Kagan appointment to the Supreme Court could mean for civil liberties
As a potential Obama nominee for Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan has liberal bona fides and the likely support of the right. But if her record is any indication, she’s more likely to side with the conservative bloc on matters of executive power and war-time presidential authority.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | April 16, 2010

The next Scott Brown?

John J. Loughlin’s suddenly high-profile campaign to oust Patrick Kennedy
Republican Scott Brown's victory last month in the race for the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat has every two-bit GOP hopeful in the Northeast claiming the mantle of the pick-up truck populist.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 10, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Has Obama peaked? No, he hasn't

Obama’s days of greatest power and popularity lie before him. But be warned: he might not do what you want with it.
Barack Obama's popularity should not be judged by the day-to-day, media-driven vagaries of politics — nor by the wishful thinking of his opponents.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 12, 2009

Has Obama peaked? Yes, he has

Yes, he made history. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there.
To listen to some pundits, Barack Obama's public image began taking a serious beating when the off-year election returns came in a week ago. Or maybe it was the undeserved Nobel Prize, his approach to the war in Afghanistan, or when he revved up his pursuit of national health-care reform.
By STEVEN STARK | November 12, 2009

Review: Earth Days

Did you know Nixon once signed progressive eco-legislation?
Those who worry that the eco-movement seems incapable of getting beyond its white upper-middle-class base will be disturbed anew by Robert Stone’s Earth Days , where every talking head is a well-bred Caucasian.
By GERALD PEARY | October 07, 2009

Jimmy C. and Teddy K.

An incumbent's lessons and the politics of personality
When the Camelot Caucus convenes in Faneuil Hall this Wednesday, the American presidency will once again become the trophy of a personality joust. In 1968 and '72, there was at least the issue of Vietnam to veil the overweaning ambitions of competing public men. But even that ambiguous nobility is lacking this year.
By MARCO TRBOVICH | August 26, 2009

Jimmy C. and Teddy K.

Ted Kennedy's real record

A note on the 32-year-incumbent's accomplishments
When a 32-year incumbent seeks re-election, there is a long and well-documented record that can be examined. So it's disconcerting to note that admit all the miles of newsprint and videotape that have been expended covering the US Senate campaign, little has been said of what Ted Kennedy has or hasn't accomplished.
By AL GIORDANO | August 26, 2009

Shooting from the lip

Kennedy's gaffe on Iran manages to make a bad image worse
Washington – Edward M. Kennedy's presidential campaign has a serious problem, and the problem appears to be Edward M. Kennedy. During the week in which leadership was transformed from a word in the lexicon of his campaign rhetoric to a measurable reality, Kennedy succeeded in verbally vanishing himself to a political isolation.
By MARCO TRBOVICH | August 26, 2009

The annunciations

East Coast, West Coast: It's the Ted & Jerry Show
The broad brush strokes of Teddy Kennedy's presidential announcement may have uplifted liberal hearts, but Jerry Brown's announcement challenged liberal thinking with some pencil-sharp specifics about the role of government in economic planning for the 1980s.
By MARCO TRBOVICH AND CHARLES P. PIERCE | August 26, 2009

Debating the Middle East muddle

Global Politics
US military aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan is being wasted and should be redirected to the police and moderate non-violent groups working for education and the rule of law, according to two Middle East experts who spoke Sunday at the Community Church of Providence.
By STEVEN STYCOS | June 17, 2009

Carter vs. the Clamshell: round one is a standoff

Inside, an impeccable incumbent fields the easy questions
The presidential party arrives in a rush through the side door near the stage, and those in the audience at Portsmouth High School stand to applaud. Many are on their toes and crane their necks to catch a glimpse of Jimmy Carter in the confusion down front.
By DIANNE DUMANOSKI | May 07, 2009

Jim nauseam

Constant comparisons to Jimmy Carter are driving Barack batty. And they're unfair — to Jimmy Carter.
In the early days of the Obama administration, one politically perilous warning keeps resurfacing for the man in the Oval Office: "Don't turn into another Jimmy Carter."
By STEVEN STARK | April 02, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Holy rollers

The Blind Boys of Alabama and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
The double bill of the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at Symphony Hall on Friday is a match made in New Orleans.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | March 24, 2009

Appearing Act

Obama's 'personal presidency' is overexposing the Commander in Chief, and painting him into the corners of the Oval Office.
Barack Obama is ubiquitous.
By STEVEN STARK | March 10, 2009

Interview: Artist, construction worker Susan Eisenberg

On Equal Terms: Women in Construction 30 Years & Still Organizing at the Adams Gallery at Suffolk University.
In order to shine some light on the inequality – as well as call attention to the strong, talented tradeswomen who wire this country's buildings, lay out piping systems, and fabricate metals – the local artist and poet Susan Eisenberg, herself a pioneering tradeswoman who came into the business in 1978, has unveiled On Equal Terms: Women in Construction 30 Years & Still Organizing at the Adams Gallery at Suffolk University.
By IAN SANDS | February 09, 2009

Revenge of the nerds

For the first time since JFK, 'the best and the brightest' are back in the White House. Will Ivy-League intellect be enough to set the country straight?
Barack Obama's new administration has been characterized many ways — as a return to liberalism, a Chicago Mafia, and the harbinger of a new age.
By STEVEN STARK | January 21, 2009

Bringing the party to the people

A history of our Inaugural West Swingers and White House Hoedowns
Are there any jobs on Earth more virile-sounding than commander in chief?
By KARA BASKIN | January 19, 2009

Proponents make the case for National Popular Vote

Talking Politics
During a fundraiser for FairVote Rhode Island at the Hi-Hat on Monday, supporters of the concept known as National Popular Vote several times used the acronym NPV with a wink and a smile, eliciting the question from a colleague, "What's NPV?," and then offering the all-too obvious answer.
By IAN DONNIS | December 18, 2008

Take Back Barack

It's time to reclaim the man we put in the White House
It's time to reclaim the man we put in the White House
By JEFF INGLIS + DEIRDRE FULTON | December 19, 2008

High-tech high jinx

Anybody can give electronics that do something useful, it takes imagination to air-condition a dog
Like being visited by the Grinch instead of Santa, it looks as if Barack Obama is going to have to give up his beloved BlackBerry not long after this holiday season draws to a close.
By MIKE MILIARD | December 12, 2008

Divide and be conquered

The GOP relied on talk radio to carry its water, but votes are worth more than ratings
Things do indeed look bad for their Grand Old Party. Actually, it's even worse than they think.
By BY STEVEN STARK | November 14, 2008