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Mitt Romney Drops His 3 a.m. Phone Call
Fair warning for what's ahead: I once worked for a Democratic president. As I say in a discussion with Ta-Nehisi Coates included in our new Atlantic eBook, in this election I prefer the Democratic...
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The (Apparent) Return of Xi Jinping, Plus West Coast Live Update
I have been either traveling to meet people to interview, or interviewing them, for the past 60 hours, and therefore not in a position to weigh in on political, global-disruption, tech-world, or...
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Another Step Forward on the 'Post-Truth Politics' Trail
Thanks to many readers who have sent pointers to today's column by the NYT's new public editor, Margaret Sullivan, shown in a Times photo at right. Here's the good news: she is off to a strong start...
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The Anti-Japanese Eruptions in China
Six years ago, in the first article I filed after moving to Shanghai, I listed the things that struck me as different, compared with my earlier visits to China 20 years before. At the top of the list...
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There Is No Such Thing as 'The Times'
In response to this item yesterday, about mainstream media outlets figuring out how to cope with "post-truth politics," a writer who is a regular contributor to the New York Times and other...
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Maureen Dowd Is Not an Anti-Semite
I am in limbo at SFO airport before a long plane flight, so I'll type this out as fast as I can.- No one will ever accuse me of being a slavish flatterer of Maureen Dowd's. We've had some unpleasant...
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Forgive Me for Finding This Charming
A headline on the home page of the WaPo just now, about some of the recent travails of the Romney campaign: My point at the moment has nothing to do with political trends or campaign management. What I...
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An American Muslim on 'Muslim Rage'
Gawker had one powerful response to Newsweek's "Muslim Rage" story; it is worth checking out both. In the "evolution of journalism" chronicles, it must signify something that the proudly tabloidish and...
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'Our Eyes Have Adjusted,' As Seen From Taiwan
Here's a break from political news -- or, at least a shift from the horse race to longer-term public challenges.This past summer I did several items, including this and this, on how America's "eyes...
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But What Does Hitler Think About the Secret Video?
If you're about to write in and say, (1) There have been a million of these recaptioned "Hitler Rant" videos taken from Downfall, so why do another one? Or (2) Hey, any connection between Hitler and...
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I Trust This Is Meant Ironically
Headline from the NYT just now: Good to have our leading paper using this fresh imagery!In other words, Chinese politics is full of pragmatists, like anywhere else, and the next decade will show if the...
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Back to 'Throwing Like a Girl'
I was traveling so didn't get on the much- commented-upon Washington Post feature on "throwing like a girl" when it came out. I am reminded by Andrew Sullivan that the topic is still bouncing around,...
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Hitler and the Secret Video: The Creator Speaks
Yesterday I mentioned the latest, and in my view genuinely funny, Downfall / Hitler-rant parody, in which the Fuhrer bemoans the recent setbacks for the Romney campaign. I can't embed it, but you can...
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Write Your Own Blog Post!
This is an at-home exercise only; no need to mail in the results. But here's the set-up:1) Start with this headline on The Washington Post's site: 2) See how you can put this development in context...
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Media Report: New York Mag, Frontline
1) Late yesterday I typed my way for about an hour through an online exchange with Bloomberg's Josh Barro, as part of New York magazine's "Instant Politics" series. We started out talking about the...
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Today's Romance-of-Past-Technology Video
From someone I know in the high-tech world, this phone-video of the space shuttle Endeavor being ferried into Moffett Field, south of San Jose, about an hour ago. Among the things I love about this...
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Ann Romney: 'This Is Hard'
Ann Romney's exasperated response to an Iowa radio host yesterday was the truest glimpse we've seen of any of the national-level candidates or their spouses this year. It was also sad, and potentially...
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'The Worst Thing That Has Happened to Our Democratic Election System'
Map from the Lawyers' Commitee on Civil Rights Under Law. Full-size version here. Andrew Cohen has been doing a formidable job of covering what is otherwise a substantially under-covered theme in this...
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What the Space Program Meant
On Friday I mentioned some of the excitement across California as the space shuttle Endeavor and its 747 mother ship made low-pass fly-bys in various parts of the state. Here is how it looked from San...
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Throwing Like an American, Throwing Like T-Rex
In response to this recent item, plus this, and my original Atlantic article on "Throwing Like a Girl," many readers have weighed in. As a reminder, the original contention was that throwing a ball,...
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