Skip to main content

Breakaway Republics and Barack

The news that Russia has recognised the breakaway republics hitherto within Georgia will be bad news for many people - and perhaps most of all Mr. Obama. With the resurgent rise of The Bear, The West has become more militant and tense than ever, and McCain more than matches Biden when it comes to the foreign policy seriousness the American people seem to require at this time. New polls in American suggest this is already a tied race. It just got less-than-tied, I think - McCain will find rising problems with Russia to his relative advantage.

Comments

Unknown said…
Interesting to see what Hilary says today at the DNC. Oh boy, this election race is anything but clear cut...
Unknown said…
Have a look at the reruns of Governor Mark Warner's speak and you will see how completely wrong you are. All the talent and the skills in attacking the current problems are with the Democrats. The Republicans don't have a chance in hell. Seriously. All along, it has been Barack who has been promoting the idea that the West needs to take most of its troops out of Irag and take them to Afghanistan, to Asia, etc. You need to look at a lot more than the headlines and polls, Todd, not just a little more. I haven't lost faith in the process at all. I used to, but the Democrats have really recovered their stride. Even more than Bill Clinton did in the 90s.
Janet Vickers said…
It's a sad statement that people will vote based on what happens in Georgia before getting their own country in order.

Popular posts from this blog

CLIVE WILMER'S THOM GUNN SELECTED POEMS IS A MUST-READ

THAT HANDSOME MAN  A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought.  Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se.  What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".