I'm Mother Jones' engagement editor and Tumblrizer, specializing in explanatory journalism and new-media reporting. As a Navy vet and ex-Iraq contractor, I'm also committed to articulating all things martial—good, bad, and weird—to new audiences.
Adam Weinstein is Mother Jones' engagement editor, having previously served the magazine as its national security reporter and copy editor. Before that, he worked at the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, and the Tallahassee Democrat. He's written for the New York Times, New York magazine, GQ, and Newsweek. A Navy veteran, two-day Jeopardy champion and ex-political scientist, he also did a recession-fueled stint as a military contractor in Iraq. For more about Adam and his writing, click here.
How will Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) do in Thursday night's VP debate? Judging from his history with pols and journalists, the only thing we know for sure is: There will be lots of weird facial expressions. And mansplaining. And Randsplaining.
And from one of the featured clips, a few GIFs for your sharing pleasure:
WASHINGTON (AP) – Forty U.S. and British warplanes and an armada of warships and submarines pummeled strongholds of the al-Qaeda network and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan on Sunday with Tomahawk cruise missiles, 500-pound gravity bombs and computer-guided bombs. The targets included five Afghan cities, which housed early warning radars, surface-to-air missiles, airfields, aircraft, military command and control installations, and terrorist camps.
So began Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) on Oct. 7, 2001. It continues to this day, albeit with a different objective. Osama bin Laden lies at the bottom of the sea. His Afghanistan-based Al Qaeda terror syndicate, which killed 2,997 people in the September 11 attacks, has been dismantled and scattered, replaced by local warlords and terror clans like the Haqqani network. The Taliban government in Kabul, which harbored bin Laden and his cohort, has been replaced with a weak, corrupt central government that appears at turns unable or unwilling to stanch the flow of violent extremism throughout the country. And participants in the American-led military coalition there continue to make the ultimate sacrifice: Authorities last week confirmed the death of the 2000th US service member in Afghanistan.
UPDATED Thursday, Oct. 11: For Thursday night's highly anticipated vice-presidential debate, focused on America's big domestic concerns, here's your topic-by-topic primer.
Economic Inequality and the "47 Percent" Video
What's this "47 percent" business really all about? It's about this secret video, obtained by MoJo, in which Mitt Romney told wealthy donors what he REALLY thought of Obama voters and the 47 percent of Americans who, he claimed, pay no income taxes. "I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," he said. Here are some charts that flesh out who's in that fabled 47 percent.
Tonight, the choice in this presidential race will be made clearer than ever ever. Or it won't. There will be zingers! There will be gaffes! But will there be substance? Probably not.
If you're committed to watching the first debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama tonight, but you're resigned to hearing nothing especially new, here's a way to cope: Drink heavily, with our help. That's right, it's debate bingo time! We've updated our 2008 bingo card to make it even more challenging this year. Feel free to ignore the directions—you're probably going to need to drink more than these rules allow.
When a political candidate makes a solid point during a debate, it's a thing of beauty. It is a delicate chemistry of logic, facts, and charm, broadcasted effortlessly into living rooms across America. But then there's the rest of the time. Broken teleprompters. Butchered names. Awkward touching. And neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney is immune. In honor of Romney and Obama's first head-to-head presidential debate on Wednesday, let's take a look at the best of the worst of their debates so far.
MITT ROMNEY
1. FAILING The Multiple-Choice Abortion Test
Back in 1994, when Mitt Romney was campaigning for Senate against Ted Kennedy, he professed his love of safe, legal abortions. Kennedy's debate retort, delivered here at 0:17, was an instant classic: "I am pro-choice. My opponent is multiple choice."
Turns out Teddy was more right than he knew: During the GOP presidential primary debates in 2007, Romney said he'd be "delighted" to sign a bill banning abortion, or to see Roe v. Wade overturned.
2. SHOW US THE TAX RETURNS!
Asked by John King in a January GOP primary debate if he would follow his father's example in releasing multiple years' worth of personal tax returns, Romney answered with a cryptic grin and a single word: "Maybe!" Judging from his subsequent hemming and hawing and the audience's boos, even conservatives were nonplussed by Mitt's noncommittal answer.
On one hand, Romney's been pretty consistent in his tax return convictions since 2002, as evidenced by this clip from his gubernatorial debate. But on the other hand, your first reaction to the question "Do you have something to hide?" should probably not be the creepy laugh at 0:15 here.
3. YOU BET YOUR LIFE. OR 10 GRAND. WHICHEVER.
Rick Perry knocked Romneycare last December, saying the first run of the Massachusetts governor's book, No Apology, proved he was an Obamacare fan: "You were for individual mandates, my friend." Romney swore it wasn't true. He was willing to put money on it. Just a teeny bit of money. For him.
4. TOUCHING ME, TOUCHING YOU
Then there was the time last October when a debate over Romney's allegedly undocumented gardener turned physical. Spoiler alert: Awkward cackle at 0:23, awkward touching at 0:33. Good thing Rick Perry wasn't armed.
5. The One Where The Gay Vietnam Vet
Gets the Best of Mitt
Okay, so it's not a structured debate, with a moderator and clocks and blinking lights. But in the age-old New England tradition of town hall meetings and gripefests, Romney took the third degree on same-sex marriage last December from a New Hampshire Vietnam veteran who was sitting down to breakfast with his life partner. (You can see the bad moon rising when Romney tries to make small talk—"'66 to '67…I was, let's see, I would've been, ah"—and the vet responds, "Some college kid.")
Romney, parroting his conservative talking points, seems oblivious to the men's relationship: "I believe that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman." The vet, barely containing his outrage, replies: "You have to look a man in the eye to get a good answer. You know what, Governor? Good luck." Ew. Awkward!
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
1. Obama plans to call the president of canada
Obama, who at the time was under fire for his lack of foreign policy experience, made an ill-timed gaffe about our northern neighbor in August 2007. He promised he would try to amend NAFTA by calling "the president of Mexico, the president of Canada." Insert awkward moment where you remember that Canada has a prime minister. And you learned that in high school.
2. change you can xerox
Remember when Hillary Clinton accused Obama of ripping off his speeches from Deval Patrick? Well, in this February 2008 debate, Obama doesn't exactly defend himself; instead, he nonmodestly says his speeches are "pretty good," then changes the subject. Clinton got the real zinger: "Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox."
3. the TERRIFYING disappearing teleprompter
Observe President Obama, largely considered to be one of the top presidential orators of all time, melt into a quivering pile of debate team mush when his teleprompter goes out at town hall meeting. He inexplicably decides to go with the "I didn't get enough sleep" excuse.
4. Obama forgets deceased soldier's name
It should have been a touching debate moment: Obama wore a "hero bracelet" commemorating a soldier killed in Iraq. But not only was there controversy over whether Obama was going against the family's wishes by wearing the bracelet, but he seemingly forgot the soldier's name.
5. Obama wins nobel peace prize for…preemptive peace?
Obviously, Obama didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize during a debate, but it was one of the more awkward moments of his early presidency. The New York Times tried to characterize it as the committee's rejection of George W. Bush, but even Obama seemed baffled.
