Jon Wiener is a contributing editor to The Nation and professor of history at UC Irvine. His most recent book is Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud and Politics in the Ivory Tower (New Press, 2005).

Blog Entries by Jon Wiener

Hillary's Big Ethics Problem: Bill

9 Comments | Posted November 22, 2008 | 06:18 PM (EST)


What guidelines should govern Bill Clinton's future activities if Hillary becomes Secretary of State? Recent events suggest that at least two are necessary: no more favors for human rights violators in exchange for big contributions to the Clinton Foundation; and no more lying to the news media about such deals.

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McCain's Favorite TV Show, 24, Brings Torture Back This Sunday

Posted November 17, 2008 | 02:48 PM (EST)


John McCain's favorite TV show, 24 -- the one that glorifies torture - is returning to Fox TV this Sunday night with a two-hour special.

McCain named 24 as his favorite show on his Facebook page. The show has done more to advance the Bush White House defense...

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The Undecideds: What's Their Problem?

Posted November 4, 2008 | 01:01 PM (EST)


Undecided voters--"or, as I call them, morons," Bill Maher says--remained a stubborn five or six percent of the electorate as the polls reported final results yesterday. Obama and McCain each have spent tens of millions on TV ads to persuade them, and thousands of hours of door-to-door canvassing to talk...

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White Voters and Obama

25 Comments | Posted November 4, 2008 | 08:49 AM (EST)


Why didn't Obama end up farther ahead in the polling? The objective factors that favor the Democrats this year are overwhelming: the worst economy since the Great Depression, the most unpopular incumbent president in the history of polling, and a money advantage in the campaign that is unprecedented for a...

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Life After Election Day: No More Todd, No More Track, No More Bristol

Posted November 3, 2008 | 08:56 PM (EST)


Life After Election Day:
No more Todd, no more Track, no more Bristol.

No more Jon Stewart.
No more Colbert Report.
No more Rachel Maddow.
No more Bill Maher.

No more Politico.
No more Pollster.
No more RealClearPolitics, no more Talking Points Memo.
...

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Six Ways McCain Could Still Win

27 Comments | Posted October 28, 2008 | 08:11 AM (EST)


Six ways McCain could still win:

6. Thirty million young, first-time voters oversleep, forget to go to polls on Nov. 4.

5. Sarah Palin reveals secret past as Rhodes Scholar; admits "hockey mom" thing was just a ruse -- to avoid being called an "elitist."

4. Economic collapse ends, Dow...

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Rich Old White Men -- Still the Problem

86 Comments | Posted October 27, 2008 | 06:58 AM (EST)


The latest New York Times-CBS News poll identifies the demographic group with the highest level of support for John McCain: rich old white men. Coincidentally, they are also the people who control Wall Street, Congress, and the White House.

The poll defined "old" as "45 or older." Many will...

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The Suffering of Wall Street Wives

Posted October 25, 2008 | 03:59 PM (EST)


"Wall Street wives are finding that they must defer dreams and fancy things," the L.A. Times reported in a page one story on Saturday. One wife, who had been looking forward to her husband's retiring with "$10 to $12 million," told the Times she was "so angry" with...

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McCain, Nixon and John Lennon

Posted September 15, 2008 | 06:04 PM (EST)


The man John McCain appointed to head his transition team, William E. Timmons, played a central role in the Nixon Administration's campaign to deport John Lennon in 1972.

Timmons is known today mostly as a lobbyist for the oil companies, but in 1972 he worked in the Nixon White House...

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My Sarah Palin Obsession

Posted September 11, 2008 | 01:26 PM (EST)


My name is Jon, and I'm addicted to Sarah Palin.

I read everything I can about her. I watch TV, hoping Wolf Blitzer will say something about her. I get irritable waiting for the next Maureen Dowd column about her.

I've come to understand that this is not a...

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Sarah Palin And The Jews

Posted September 8, 2008 | 04:16 PM (EST)


Sarah Palin took the biblical Queen Esther as her role model when she became governor, according to her former pastor--a report that suggests her ties to Jewish history are stronger than you might have expected.

When Palin took office as governor in 2006, according to the New York Times,...

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Palin and "The Lumberjack Song"

Posted August 29, 2008 | 07:00 PM (EST)


Those disparaging Palin's lack of achievements have forgotten that it was Palin who wrote the famous "Lumberjack Song," which of course is about life in Alaska: "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK/I sleep all night and I work all day."

The song generated controversy because of the next lines, "I...

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Obama's Limits: A Conversation With Andrew Bacevich

Posted August 28, 2008 | 05:09 PM (EST)


"We have presidential elections as a substitute for serious democratic politics" -- that's what Andrew Bacevich says. He's been writing and teaching history and international relations at Boston University, after spending 23 years in the army and retiring as a colonel.

What would serious democratic politics look like? First...

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Memo to McCain's Pastor Hagee: Did God Have to be so Rough on the Jews?

Posted May 21, 2008 | 11:52 PM (EST)


John Hagee, the controversial pastor who has endorsed John McCain, argued in a late 1990s sermon that God sent Hitler to help the Jews get to the promised land (Israel, not Auschwitz).

Why did God allow the Holocaust to happen? According to a report in the Huffington Post by...

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McCain's Medical Records: Why the Delay?

Posted April 20, 2008 | 04:02 PM (EST)


The mainstream media ask Obama why he doesn't wear a flag pin, but they aren't asking McCain why he doesn't release his medical records. McCain, who would be the oldest man ever elected president, had surgery for melanoma, a potentially fatal skin cancer, eight years ago -- the scar is...

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Breaking News: Obama Met Palestinian Intellectuals Ten Years Ago

Posted April 10, 2008 | 04:42 PM (EST)


Ten years ago, Barack Obama went to a lecture by Edward Said, the prominent Palestinian intellectual. Should that be page one news now? The LA Times thinks so -- they ran a story on their front page on Thursday on the event, headlined "Campaign '08: Allies of Palestinians see...

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George Bush: No Gene Kelly

Posted March 19, 2008 | 01:24 PM (EST)


When New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd wrote recently that George Bush has "turned into Gene Kelly," she set off a firestorm of protest from fans of the late dancer, director and choreographer.

Kelly's widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, declared that "If Gene were in a grave, he would...

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Clinton's Iraq Vote -- Five Years Later

Posted March 17, 2008 | 12:55 AM (EST)


The fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war provides an appropriate moment to revisit Hillary Clinton's argument in favor of authorizing Bush's use of force, and to contrast it with the case made at the time by Bush's opponents.

In the last few years, Clinton has defended her...

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How The Spitzer Sex Scandal Could Help Hillary

Posted March 11, 2008 | 02:16 PM (EST)


A woman president is not going to be Client 9 of the Emperor's Club VIP sex service.

A woman president is not going to get arrested for soliciting sex in a rest room at the Minneapolis airport.

A woman president is not going to be caught sending hot text messages...

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Hillary Wins; Limbaugh is Laughing

Posted March 5, 2008 | 12:09 AM (EST)


Tuesday night was a good night for Rush Limbaugh. "I want Hillary to stay in this," he said on Fox News, because "I want the Democrats to lose. They're in the midst of tearing themselves apart right now. It is fascinating to watch, and it's all going to stop...

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