End of Year Update

Blog. December 31st, 2010

The last day of 2010 seems like a good time to update the site.

For Salon, I spoke to Ron Paul about his thoughts on making a 2012 presidential election bid. If Paul does not run, Gary Johnson may well emerge as the libertarian standard-bearer. The piece also includes Johnson’s comments.

Also for Salon, Steny Hoyer told me about his predictions for the next Congress just before November’s midterm elections. Of course, at the time I assumed (like many people) that Hoyer would become the Democratic Party’s leader in the House soon afterward. Oops.

Staying with the midterm elections, I argued that “tea is the Republican Party’s cocaine” in The Guardian. After the results came in, I also wrote about how indifferently Sarah Palin’s preferred candidates had performed.

Later, I wrote for Capital New York about why third parties and independent political movements have generally thrived in other western democracies but foundered in the U.S.

I rarely link here to my articles for The Sunday Business Post, but I’ll make an exception for a long piece I wrote in November, which asked: Is America in Decline?

Finally, a couple of TV appearances have been added to the “TV & Radio” page. I appeared on “Crosstalk”, a discussion program on RT, Russia’s equivalent of CNN, and on UTV Live Tonight back home in Ireland. The subject on both occasions was the midterm elections.

Thanks for reading and all the very best for 2011.

Most Recent

New Update: Salon, New Republic, Irish Times

Blog. August 23rd, 2010

It’s time for another update of assorted articles from recent months.
Judging from the reaction it received on Salon’s website, I suspect this profile of former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson may be the most-read article I’ve written in quite a while. Although the profile appeared back in May, The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf gave his own [...]

Recent articles: Salon, Daily Beast, Guardian

Blog. April 21st, 2010

I have a piece up on The Daily Beast today seeking to explain the appeal of Nick Clegg, the leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats, to an American readership. The article’s appearance reminded me that I have written several pieces for U.S. media in recent months, and not referenced them here.
For Salon, I wrote about Charlie [...]

New Year, New Update

Blog. January 7th, 2010

I updated the website for the first time in a while today, with a selection of articles from the last months of 2009. It is impossible within the site’s current framework to post everything I write, so, under the “Most Recent” heading on the Print page, I have posted a general grab-bag, including: an Irish [...]

The Case For Obama’s Nobel Prize

Blog. January 6th, 2010

The committee has a tradition of selecting winners as much as an act of encouragement towards their goal as a celebration of the miles already travelled.

Nick Hornby book review (WSJ)

Blog. January 6th, 2010

“Juliet, Naked” is a rich and perceptive novel, with a keen sense of the lives led by the trio at its core.