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Steven Stark
To read the "Stark Ravings" blog, go to thePhoenix.com/blogs/starkravings.Subscribe to Steven Stark RSS Article Feed.
Recent Articles
- Has Obama Peaked? Yes, He Has - November 12, 2009
- To listen to some pundits, Barack Obama's public image began taking a serious beating when the off-year election returns came in a week ago. Or maybe it was the...
- Men + Money = Mess - May 13, 2009
- Since Iceland is something of the epicenter of the global financial crisis - its government being the first to essentially go belly up - it's probably not surprising...
- Will Senate Moderates Work Together? - May 7, 2009
- So, Arlen Specter is now a Democrat. That's old news. But with all the media attention focused on the short-term effects of Specter's midnight conversion - thus likely...
- Obama's Mandate: The Jury Is Still Out - April 29, 2009
- A tension lies at the heart of the Obama presidency. After 100 days in office, the public still seems uncertain how to interpret the historic nature of the election last...
- Courthouse Marriage - April 22, 2009
- While political analysts understandably regard elections and politicians as the key forces of social change, nongovernmental forces are the ones that most often actually...
- Man Bites Newspaper - April 15, 2009
- It's not news that newspapers are in huge trouble — victims of technological change and a mini-depression. What is news is the unadorned glee that is greeting the...
- Sports Aren't Recession Proof - April 9, 2009
- The great American sports machine is crashing to Earth. And, given the intensity with which Americans love and identify with their teams, that is likely to take a good...
- Jim Nauseam - April 3, 2009
- But it's time to set the record straight. The comparison is completely unfair -- not to Obama but to Carter.At this point in his administration, Jimmy Carter...
- Obama, Mr. Populist? - March 25, 2009
- Anyone, that is, except for the president.It's hard, after all, for a commander in chief to stand in opposition to the government he leads. (Ronald Reagan was able to do...
- Are Obama's Problems Generational? - March 22, 2009
- By looking at the characteristics of Obama's generation, we can learn a lot about the leaders we're putting our faith in. The result? We might be on the verge of either...
- Crimson Tied - March 12, 2009
- Obama is, of course, a product of Harvard Law, and his books document the important influence of his Crimson experience. He has gone on to populate his administration...
- Is President Obama Overexposed? - March 8, 2009
- This is not an argument about the longevity of political popularity. Rather, it has to do with Obama's creating what political scientist Theodore Lowi called "a personal...
- The Elephant Also Rises - February 27, 2009
- So the Republicans will certainly make their way back to equal footing (or worse). But their route to success may be stealthier than anyone anticipates -- it may even be...
- Appoint Paul Krugman Economic Czar - February 20, 2009
- Krugman, of course, is a Nobel Prize-winning economist from Princeton, who's also a formidable columnist for the New York Times. He obviously knows Fed Chairman Ben...
- With Friends Like These - February 6, 2009
- After only a little more than two weeks in office, Barack Obama is learning Harding's lesson the hard way, and it's his Democratic pals who could do him in.First, let's...
- Tons of Money, But No Vision or Inspiration - January 29, 2009
- When times are tough and you're spending that much money, there has to be something wonderful and tangible to show for it. Yet that's not been the Obama approach, which...
- The Intellectual Elite Are Back in Charge - January 22, 2009
- If there's one overriding theme that characterizes Obama's team, it is that anyone who went to Harvard (or another high-powered elite school) has his full trust. The...
- Inauguration Daze - January 16, 2009
- But those speeches were in the days before television, when Americans heard from their presidents much less frequently and regular presidential appearances hadn't become...
- Why Obama Can't Be Another FDR - December 31, 2008
- That doesn't mean Obama is headed for failure. Presidents design their office around what they know -- former governors tend to see the position as a "chief executive of...
- Obama Won The Old-Fashioned Way - December 24, 2008
- That's an important distinction, because it tells us a lot about our likely political future. Remember that, at the beginning of this fall campaign, the press fell all...
- Divide and Be Conquered - November 13, 2008
- On top of that, counting last Tuesday, the Republicans have now failed to win the popular vote in four of the past five presidential elections. And in the fifth, they...
- A Long Recession May Help Sports - Delete This Publication - November 7, 2008
- Obama Redraws the Map - November 6, 2008
- It generally takes a gut-wrenching crisis to trigger a radical shift in our politics. Outside events set off wide-ranging swings in voter loyalties; good candidates...
- Maverick in a Mess - October 30, 2008
- Way back in the early 1980s, in his brilliant book The Real Campaign, Jeff Greenfield convincingly argued that the media "made almost no difference" in the outcome of...
- Long National Nightmare - October 23, 2008
- Of course, Wednesday-morning quarterbacking is ridiculously easy, but in retrospect, what happened should have been crystal clear: Obama's lead was never as great as the...
- Lou Dobbs in 2012? - October 17, 2008
- The Pachyderm Party will face a situation where the only voices they'll be hearing in the proverbial wilderness are from talk radio. They'll have a scattered minority in...
- A Realigning Election? - October 9, 2008
- But the Great Depression redefined the political landscape (with an assist from Herbert Hoover's initial bumbling reaction to the crisis), giving the Democrats the upper...
- Steering a Suddenly Lost GOP Ship - October 2, 2008
- But so far McCain has taken a bad situation and made it worse. In a presidential campaign, voters evaluate the candidates to see how they will handle the rigors of the...
- What to Watch for at the Debates - September 25, 2008
- Who will benefit the most from the debates? Apply these rules and you'll know.1) Debates are about memorable lines and key momentsWhat voters tend to recall are knockout...
- Why Palin Passes the Test - September 20, 2008
- Palin may not have much of a résumé, but that only puts her into a long tradition of vice-presidential selections, many of them successful (at least in an electoral...
- Peacock Problem - September 11, 2008
- Keith Olbermann and MSNBC are commonly recognized as the leaders of the pro-Barack Obama movement in the mainstream media (through no fault of Obama's, by the way). It...
- Dawg Days - September 5, 2008
- Though the show has well-known British origins, there's something very American about the Idol concept, as anyone who has ever come across a Horatio Alger story or...
- Feeling Minnesota - August 28, 2008
- Overriding everything for McCain is the necessity to make his message in the upcoming week a far more positive one than it has been to this juncture. The temptation will...
- By George, It's Barack! - August 21, 2008
- So far, Obama has failed to construct much of a narrative to tie himself to the working-class voters who will decide the election. It's not really a question of race,...
- Breaking the Press - August 14, 2008
- The dominant narratives of this race have been how Obama upset the odds (and the Clintons) through a brilliant campaign, and how McCain mostly stumbled his way to the...
- The Reign of Spain - August 7, 2008
- True, Spain won't win all that many medals at the upcoming Games -- but that's beside the point. Despite all the hype about to smother the planet like a Beijing smog...
- It Ain't Over Yet - July 31, 2008
- It's true that Obama has a powerful tail wind, thanks to the nation's desire for change, and he is the most eloquent nominee since Ronald Reagan, with star power to...
- McCain, Obama Running Bad Campaigns - July 24, 2008
- McCain may be the candidate of experience in this election, but that know-how doesn't extend to facing off against a Democrat. He first won election to the Senate in...
- Soccer Punch - July 17, 2008
- When Barack Obama arrives in England in a few weeks on his celebrated European tour, he'll probably disembark assuming that George W. Bush is the most despised American...
- Could the Convention Hurt Obama? - July 10, 2008
- The story being spun is that the Obama team wanted to share its Thursday-night magic moment with the masses, and take a page from the playbook of John F. Kennedy, who...