Author Archives: Daniel Nichanian

Late last week, John McCain unveiled what his campaign described as its “first general election ad.” The 60-second clip introduces McCain as “the American president Americans have been waiting for.” The American president? I was unaware that there was any confusion about his nationality. I suppose that we could count a minor controversy that generated »

Always eager to intensify the extremism of his rhetoric, the increasingly unpopular French President Nicolas Sarkozy is seeking to regain approval by coupling a despicable criminal justice reform with a stunning disregard for the law. Earlier this year, Sarkozy pushed through a bill that allows for “dangerous” detainees to be held in a detention facility »

Three words have been running through my mind ever since I finally forced myself to watch the YouTube video sensation that features an all-star cast singing one of Barack Obama’s speeches. Yes. We. Can. In the video, this three-word refrain gets picked up at an increasingly frenzied rhythm, with celebrities entering trances at every utterance »

After a year of political chatter leading up to the first 2008 contests, it’s hard to find anything new to say about the Democratic primaries. Now that Super Tuesday has passed without delivering any sort of verdict, anxious anticipation has been replaced by emotional exhaustion. The temptation to give up on this race in order »

In the run up to the Nevada caucuses, Barack Obama offered disaffected progressives unsure of where to turn in the Democratic primary yet another reason to distrust him. Speaking to the editorial board of the Reno Gazette, the Illinois senator compared himself to Ronald Reagan, explaining that he thought “Reagan changed the trajectory of America… »

The political world froze on Friday when a man entered Hillary Clinton’s office in Rochester, N.H., claiming he had a pipe bomb strapped to his chest. In round-the-clock assessments of the day’s events, pundits have been too busy discussing electoral repercussions to emphasize how messed up the country’s social situation must be for a man »

From the start of her campaign, Hillary Clinton has firmly established herself as the most conservative of the Democratic candidates; but the vehemence of the Right’s hatred has blinded the base to her drift towards the center. However strongly progressives distrust Hillary, they cannot shake away the thought that there must be something Republicans despise »

Having spent much of the past five years following the career of the newly-elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, I understand full well how much he has relied on the stigmatization of the Arab community. It is his prejudiced and aggressive rhetoric, after all, that led to the 2005 riots in the banlieues — the predominantly »

Just as it slowly built up its case for the Iraq War, the Bush Administration is drumming the war beat again – this time against Iran. But in the five years since his courageous opposition to the Iraq resolution, Barack Obama has learned the subtle art of triangulation. Eager to highlight substantial differences with Hillary »

Public bathroom users, beware: Taking a bag with you in the stall has become an unmistakable sign that you are preparing to engage in homosexual activities of the most depraved kind. This is in essence what transpires in the police report of conservative Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s June arrest for lewd behavior in a Minneapolis »