Campaign Blog: News & Updates

I can't believe I missed this, but according to Ed Kilgore, I did ... Seymour Martin Lipset passed away on December 31st.

Ironic that this would come a few days after I note the concept of American Exceptionalism, I suppose. Lipset was one of the key minds that shaped a lot of thought that went on at the Progressive Policy Institute (as the related New Dem Dispatch attests to).

I never had the opportunity to meet Lipset during my brief stop in the PPI interns' den. But I was aware of his effect on those that I worked with. By the time I happened upon a used copy of "American Exceptionalism" in the late 90s, I better understood the effect he had on several others in search of "third way" policy options. Whether you've heard the name or not, you've seen his ideas put into practice, enunciated from the lips of others, or attempted in whatever halting a manner as lesser minds might take a swing at. He'll still be missed, though.

Well, I posited yesterday about what an Yglesian "liberal" media might do to "balance" out the kind words on behalf of a a deceased Republican President. Turns out I was only slightly off. Instead of an Alterman style hit, Slate gives us a Hitchens hit from the right.

Since Hitchens covers Ford's foreign policy legacy, I'd have to go so far as to say that it's practically fair game due to the timing of Woodward's release of Ford's position on Iraq and other conservative apostasies. In all fairness, Woodward might have been wise to at least hold off on the release until Ford had at least been physically buried. As it is, there's a certain degree of fairness in asking what's so relevant about Ford's views on this matter and putting them into context of his own foreign policy credentials.