Ross Douthat

And for us all, from David Frum. More »

I'm no great fan of Stephen Schwartz's politics - other neoconservatives are accused of being Trotskyists; he seems to actually be one - but this, on Paul Berman on Tariq Ramadan, is a pretty good line: Berman’s opus appeared like an iceberg in the middle of the Potomac: immense, dismal, unexplainable, melting before one’s eyes. The whole thing is here. (hat tip: Andrew) More »

Because we're geographically mobile and ethnically diverse, says Brink Lindsey. Because our families are stronger than Europe's, says Mary Eberstadt. My own preferred explanation - which is doubtless a small part of the pantomime - is theological rather than sociological: Christianity has thrived in the United States by adapting its theology to the habits and mores of the American people, in a way that religion in Europe hasn't managed to do. America is an… More »

I went to a Pew Forum lunch yesterday with twenty-odd journalists and Mike Huckabee, who had just flown in from the New Hampshire debate. (He was on a USAir flight with four other candidates, and he joked that if the plane had gone down, the headline would have been: Giuliani, McCain, Romney campaign in Iowa; other candidates die in plane crash.) Huckabee was, well, everything you'd been led to expect: Folksy, anecdotal, humorous and charming, albeit in a manner… More »

Brink Lindsey writes: Ross is correct that many of Bush’s greatest misses (prescription drug benefit, steel tariffs, farm bill, energy bill, transportation bill, McCain-Feingold) should be chalked up to vote-buying expediency rather than any considered Hamiltonian governing philosophy. However, I think a good argument can be made that the explicit abandonment of any principled commitment to limited government greatly facilitated this binge of corruption. The… More »

Whatever you think of No Child Left Behind - and I'm decidedly agnostic - it's probably not a coincidence that the domestic-policy issue where this President seemed to be most engaged with policy detail may also turn out to be the only domestic-policy issue where he leaves a somewhat successful legacy behind. Although to be fair, you could argue that he's been deeply engaged on immigration "reform" as well - or at least he seems to care about it in the same… More »

Okay, so this is pretty incredible. (hat tip: Megan) It seems like conventional nature-film fare at first, but keep watching: More »

Speaking of faith and reason ... every year, twice a year, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life holds a conference for journalists in Key West, featuring all sorts of fascinating speakers as well as a really nice beach. I went last winter, but unfortunately wasn't able to attend this spring's session; happily, they post transcripts online, and if you're looking for a lively discussion of Mormonism in America, I highly recommend browsing through this talk (and… More »

Roll the tape: Of this, and Jamie Kirchick's suggestion that Huckabee believes in "fairy tales," Matt writes: My understanding is that Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama all believe that Jesus Christ died for the sins of mankind and then rose from the dead. This strikes me as a hell of a tall tale. But, obviously, it's not what you'd call a rare view in the United States and if we're going to start writing off politicians who believe in "fairy… More »

Continuing this discussion, Jonah writes: While I have specific criticisms for all of them, my common critique of Bushian compassionate conservatism, Brooksian National Greatness, Buchanism and Crunchy Conservatism is the common sense of crusade to all of them. There are times for crusades, to be sure. But I don't think conservatism should ever be redefined as one lest it become just another populist fever. And I'll go a step further. The reason Bush pushed me… More »

My latest Bloggingheads appearance, alongside the redoubtable Mark Schmitt, finds me whining (yet again) about the absence of a non-Ron Paul critic of Bush's foreign policy in the GOP field. Daniel Larison, parsing a Washington Post poll, reminds me (yet again) why there isn't one: The response to question 45 is amazing. Asked of “leaned Republicans” whether Bush is leading the GOP in the right direction or the wrong direction 65% still say he is leading the… More »

Matt writes: Buchanan's 2000 campaign struck me as wildly undermotivated at the time. By today, it looks very well motivated in retrospect -- there seems to be a clear political space for someone who espouses a Buchanan-esque combination of foreign policy restraint, globalization skepticism, nativism, and culture war populism. Crucially, this political space also seemed to be open in 2004. If Buchanan had run then rather than in 2000, it seems to me that he could… More »

You may have noticed that the Atlantic's blogging empire now includes Marc Ambinder, last seen starring in The Note: First Blood, Part II, and The Hotline II: The Wrath of Chuck Todd. He'll be crushing his enemies, driving them before him, and hearing the lamentations of their women; also, he'll be reporting on the '08 election and national politics. More »

Ezra Klein on Knocked Up: The flick is pro-choice in the most literal sense of the term. Katherine Heigl's character receives advice in both directions, and then makes a decision -- a decision the audience may very well conclude is the wrong one. But she has a choice; nothing is forced on her, and the most explicit scene on abortion features an eloquent speech by her mother advising her to end the pregnancy because, at this point, she's not ready, and these are not… More »

J. Goodrich, on the conservative crack-up: Immigration is the point where the odd marriage that makes up the Republican base falls apart, the marriage between social conservatives (who are mostly not wealthy) and wealthy business interests. The social conservatives want a big fence around America (as they define it), whereas the business interests want cheap labor to successfully cross that fence. There was no way that Bush could have satisfied both of these… More »

One of the more annoying aspects of the whole Amanda Marcotte affair was the fact that various young liberals I respect felt the need - out of friendship, or a desire to circle the wagons, or a little of both - to use the controversy as an occasion to throw valentines to the Minkoff of the blogosphere, describing themselves as "big fans" of her work and praising her "gifted, expressive, and wide-ranging" writing style. That would be this Amanda Marcotte, just so… More »

Jonah raises an excellent question - do conservatives of a non-libertarian stripe have a leg to stand on in their criticisms of the Bush Administration's domestic policy? After all, he argues, the ideological touchstone of this Administration has been a critique of libertarianism and small-government conservatism, and if we don't like what Bush has wrought - with immigration "reform" being the latest example - than don't we need to admit that the critique was a… More »

You probably didn't see David Fincher's Zodiac when it came out this spring, at least judging by these box office numbers. But you should have. More »

No, not that one: I mean Reihan, Ruffini and yet more Reihan on the future of the conservative movement. More »

This is a test: More »