The New Republic

At a fundraiser last week in San Francisco, Barack Obama uttered this about diplomacy: I think a lot of people assume that might be some sort of military thing to make me look more Commander-in-Chief-like. Ironically, this is an area--foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain. READ MORE >>

Two days ago, news organizations everywhere were reporting that Robert Mugabe was planning on stepping down from office. In an authoritarian country where there is no free press, rumors like this spread fast, especially when people are worn down after 28 years of one-party, iron-fisted rule. Any small indication of positive change can easily blow up into a major development. Perhaps Mugabe would fly off to Malaysia or Namibia, or even arrange some sort of deal where he could reside for the rest of his life in the mansion he constructed for himself in a tony Harare suburb. READ MORE >>

Ilan Goldenberg of the National Security Network claims that, in an interview yesterday, Joe Lieberman said: If we did what Sen. Obama wanted us to do last year, Al-Qaeda in Iran would be in control of Iraq today. READ MORE >>

Rumors have been circulating over the past week that former House Manager and Georgia Congressman Bob Barr may run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket. A well-informed source tells me today that he will run...as an Independent. Barr has been extremely critical of the Bush administration from a libertarian perspective, however, stressing READ MORE >>

Last week, former Nightline correspondent Dave Marrash quit his anchoring job at Al-Jazeera due to anti-American sentiment at the network. But it wasn't the station's Arab overseers who were the main culprits. Rather, "Marash said he felt that attitude more from British administrators than Arabs at the Qatar-based network." READ MORE >>

The New York Times is reporting that Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean tyrant, may resign at the result of his clear loss in the presidential election over the weekend. Usually, dictators don't hold elections that they can't win, but apparently even this basic element of authoritarian governance was beyond Mugabe's grasp. Needless to say, this is hardly the outcome anyone expected. READ MORE >>

This was not what Patrick Cordova had bargained for. The Stanford junior, a member of the school's student government, had wanted to host a lecture on sexual health. And he figured that a provocative and fun way to tackle the issue would be to bring a prominent pornographer to speak on campus. So Cordova sent out some invitations. The first person he heard back from was Michael Lucas—longtime porn actor and director of such films as Hunt & Plunge, The Bigger The Better, and Fire Island Cruising (editions one through eight). READ MORE >>

I hold no brief for the Clintons, and have criticized them in his space and elsewhere. And while I'm hesitant to ascribe such reductive motives to other people's political passions, I can't help but think that Andrew Sullivan's loathing of Hillary is predicated upon a deeply-felt misogyny. How else to explain this? READ MORE >>

Those who read my profile of the polemicizing porn star Michael Lucas might have mistaken some of his rhetoric (much talk of "Koran-crazed Muslims) for that of Ann Coulter. Queerty, a gay blog that has sparred with Lucas many times in the past, thinks that he's actually plagiarized her. READ MORE >>

Charles Krauthammer has written, what I believe, the best distillation of Barack Obama's speech on race. Yes, it was a wonderful, even historic, address. But at the end of the day, I'm lost as to what it had to do with the crisis that prompted its delivery: Jeremiah Wright. Obama pulled off a masteful dodge-and-weave. READ MORE >>