For the past eight years, the right has been better at working the refs. Now the left is learning how to play the game. Eric Alterman More Quotes by Eric Alterman More Quotes From Eric Alterman So was it a political mistake for Obama to put so many eggs in the health-care-reform basket? Well, a negative decision from the Supreme Court will certainly make it appear so. Eric Alterman eggs decision mistake There are more people at Obama's table offering ideas than there were five years ago, but when it came to facing up to the Republicans' threat to force a double-dip recession if they didn't get their millionaires' tax cut, they still amounted to nothing. And therein lies our fundamental problem. Eric Alterman cutting offering lying One of the many, many salutary aspects of Barack Obama's impending presidential nomination is the sea change his victory marks in the battle for the mind-set of the American foreign policy establishment. Eric Alterman presidential sea mind The word liberal has been employed as the political equivalent of an untreatable but potentially containable social disease -- the kind that could be contracted merely by going to a foreign movie or ordering a decaf latte, or worse, a glass of French wine. Eric Alterman glasses political wine The White House and the media need one another in order to be successful in their jobs. The White House depends on the media to make its case to the public; the media need the White House to fill their airtime and news columns. Eric Alterman successful white jobs By the accusation of liberal bias ... the institutions that conservatives revere - the military, corporate America, organized religion, and the powerful conservative groups themselves - will be able to escape scrutiny and increase their influence. Eric Alterman powerful military america The consequences of President Johnsons campaign of deliberate deception regarding Vietnam could hardly have been more catastrophic for the nation, the military, the president, his party, and the presidency itself. Eric Alterman deception party military If liberalism has grown so weak and ineffective, why does it evoke such alarm on the part of conservatives? It turns out that while liberals are weak and spineless, they are also sneaky and clever. Eric Alterman alarms clever doe Ever since Richard Nixon walloped George McGovern in the presidential election of 1972, political pundits have treated as a truism the proposition that liberals are out of step with the rest of the nation, and therefore all but unelectable outside the precincts of the Northeast -- give or take a college town here or a ski resort there. During the course of every presidential election for the past forty years now, Republicans have sought to wield the word liberal as if it were a six-gauge shotgun. Eric Alterman college past years As with almost every significant aspect of the Bush presidency, its handling of 9/11 was a catastrophe from start to finish. Eric Alterman significant catastrophe aspect Three centuries after the appearance of Franklin's 'Courant,' it no longer requires a dystopic imagination to wonder who will have the dubious distinction of publishing America's last genuine newspaper. Few believe that newspapers in their current printed form will survive. Eric Alterman imagination believe america Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq. Eric Alterman iraq military mistake Whether one agrees or disagrees with the tactics of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it's easy to understand the inspiration for its anger as well as its impatience. Eric Alterman wall anger inspiration Apple is a wonderful company for its customers and investors. So, too, Pixar. (NeXT, not so much...) But Apple is also an engine of misery for its subcontracted Chinese workers. Eric Alterman chinese apples next To own the dominant, or only, newspaper in a mid-sized American city was, for many decades, a kind of license to print money. In the Internet age, however, no one has figured out how to rescue the newspaper in the United States or abroad. Eric Alterman united-states cities age American journalists tend to treat inequality as a fact of life. But it needn't be. Eric Alterman inequality treats facts Americans have always evinced some distrust of government, but the current situation has exacerbated this to a degree that may be unprecedented. Eric Alterman degrees government may Bringing democratic control to the conduct of foreign policy requires a struggle merely to force the issue onto the public agenda. Eric Alterman agendas issues struggle Certainly there are worse sins than doing everything possible to make your presidency matter. Eric Alterman presidency sin matter Liberals do not appear to address potential solutions with anything like the far right's aura of God-given self-confidence. Eric Alterman auras addresses self-confidence
