Category Archives: US Politics

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been on a whirlwind press junket scold Russia.  Here is a clip of her rhetorical spanking at the German Marshall Fund:

Unfortunately, the clip cuts off right when she was going to enlighten us on how Russia of the 1990s became Russia of today.  Too bad.  Surprisingly what she said was somewhat sound.  Rice explained,

After all, the 1990s were, in many ways, a period of real hope and promise for Russia. The totalitarian state was dismantled. The scope of liberty for most Russians expanded significantly in what they could read, in what they could say, in what they could buy and sell, and what associations they could form.

New leaders emerged who sought to steer Russia toward political and economic reform at home, toward integration into the global economy, and toward a responsible international role. All of this is ..read more

Update: I posted the entire interview. Russia comes in about halfway in.

Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin finally sat down for an interview.  Lo and behold, Russia came up in her exclusive with ABC’s Charles Gibson.  Here are her thoughts on Russia resurgent, letting Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, and going to war to defend those “smaller democratic countries.”  And she says we can’t repeat the Cold War.

Sarah Palin on Russia:

We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We’ve learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.

We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

GIBSON: Would you favor putting ..read more

The Democratic and Republican conventions are over.  Thank god.  All the political pomp, demigod worship, endless biographical tales, self-congratulation, repetitions of God Bless America, convention protesters and chants of U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A have reduced to a low simmer.  Now the pundits and campaign gurus are weighing in.   To my surprise McCain beat Obama in the preliminary TV ratings:

Across all broadcast networks Thursday, Sen. McCain’s speech ended the night with a 4.8 rating/7 share, compared to Sen. Obama’s 4.3/7 average, according to overnight numbers from metered households in 55 U.S. markets measured by Nielsen. These ratings are preliminary, however, and are subject to change.

I have lots of thoughts on the both party’s performances which I won’t belabor here.  Suffice to say I think Obama gave a good speech until he began to promise the world.  At that point I promptly turned him off.  McCain’s speech was just boring.  As everyone knows, ..read more

On Friday, Tbilisi broke diplomatic ties with Moscow in protest to statements that Russia plans to absorb South Ossetia and Abkhazia in “several years.”  Moscow responded by closing its embassy in Tbilisi.

The EU also stepped up warnings against Russia by announcing it would suspend talks for a long term partnership agreement as long as there are Russian troops inside Georgia.  The Russians, using something called “salami tactics,” looks to divide Europe from itself and from the US.  And who are the targets of Russia’s culinary karate chop?  Germany and France.

American Vice President Dick Cheney has left the building for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ukraine.  Too bad.  I as looking forward to his speech at the RNC.  In Azerbaijan, Cheney looks to secure energy agreements to prevent Baku oil from going to Russia.   “The U.S. is afraid that Azerbaijan will begin sending its energy resources through Russia instead of ..read more

If Putin was an American politician, what would he be?  He is conservative, deeply religious, a patriot, and strong partisan for Russian traditions.

Given this, I doubt we would have seen Putin strutting about on the DNC’s American Idol-esque stage, swearing his undying, almost cultic allegiance to Barak Obama.  It’s more likely we would find him preparing to jet to St. Paul to rouse the base in support of McCain.  For some, Putin’s Republican affinities are all too clear: Putin is a closet neocon and the his real intent of his interview with CNN was to cast a veiled vote for John McCain.

It is this last point that I find interesting.  Mostly because the big question has been what Putin was thinking when he asserted that the US might be behind the Georgian War.  Bad information?  Kooky conspiracy thinking.  An age old Russian paranoia?  Or was he somehow trapped in the ..read more

A colleague sent me this cartoon from the 1 September issue of the New Yorker.  It’s quite an appropriate addendum to “Loving Cold War II.”