The New Republic

Right now Henry Paulson probably has, with Paul Bernanke, the most intellectually and emotionally fraught job in the world. So much has gone wrong and so much more can go wrong to the tune of trillions of dollars. Bernanke is a convert from the academy to public life, although he did serve on the board of education of Montgomery Township in New Jersey while he was a professor. Paulson's pre-life was as a banker, and his last work before Washington was as managing partner at Goldman Sachs. READ MORE >>

Today in New York City, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad is giving a big speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Yesterday, Sarah Palin didn't speak at a rally organized in protest of that speech. What's the deal? READ MORE >>

America’s schools have “lost their way,” and have become “bastions of moral relativism and moral compromise with the culture of death.” To be saved, those schools must change, so students can find “the God of the Bible and Biblical values in the classroom.” READ MORE >>

Minutes after John McCain finished his speech tonight, a prominent gay conservative wrote me with this observation: I liked it a lot. I'm delighted I was wrong to expect a reference to SSM [Same-Sex Marriage]. Am I right that this was the first GOP acceptance speech since probably 1992 not to mention defending traditional marriage or something similar? READ MORE >>

The first real job I ever got in journalism was at the softly right-of-center New York Sun. It was an internship after the summer of my freshman year in college, and it paid (as too few newspaper internships do). READ MORE >>

I hate to ruin Ron Paul's John Birch Society-supported festivities at the Republican National Convention, but The Washington Post reports today that The Revolution: A Manifesto, the bestselling book supposedly authored by Dr. Paul, was actually ghost-written by Thomas E. READ MORE >>

Joe Lieberman's been a punching bag in liberal quarters for quite some time now, and understandably so: he has not only endorsed, but vigorously campaigned for, John McCain. Not long ago, my colleague Jon Chait wrote a TRB entitled, "The Zell Millerization of Joe Lieberman." I think the speech he just delivered proves that comparison facile.  READ MORE >>

Andrew Sullivan writes: READ MORE >>

Taki Theodoracopulos on the Olympics, posted without comment: It might seem politically incorrect to say this, but the Berlin Olympics were the best ever staged, the last time white American and European men and women competed on an equal level with blacks, despite the great feat of Jesse Owens in winning four gold medals. READ MORE >>

Joe Szlavik remembers the moment when he began to suspect that his work on behalf of the Kingdom of Swaziland was an enormous waste of time. It was 2006, and Szlavik--a lobbyist who had represented foreign governments ranging from Burundi to Gabon to Uganda, as well as the late Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan--was helping Swaziland, a tiny, landlocked monarchy sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, navigate the tricky waters of Washington politics. READ MORE >>