Give Tom a pass on the Iraq war and the coming war with Iran. On Israel, some Jews are Republicans. Tom was talking about progressive issues in general. This generation is Republican, just like every other is Democrat. The kids don't want to be like their parents. This is normal.

Neither the Iraq war nor the coming war with Iran have done/will do anything to help Israel's long-term security, so no free pass for Friedman on that issue. As for "talking about progressive issues in general," I agree, but I would argue that the Iraq war is the most important progressive issue, and he avoided mentioning it because his record on the issue is so weak. And the numbers say that young people are actually trending Democratic, not Republican.

You are right Nick, but AIPAC and Likud have a different view than you do.

I wouldn't be overly hard on Friedman either; despite his early support for the war, his foreign policy analysis is usually pretty spot on.

And he war should not be the most important progressive issue; it will be fine sitting here in 2009/10 having destroyed the Democrats chance of taking the White House in 08 because of his/her war position, wailing that Rudy or Mitt has just nominated an pro-life, anti civil rights neo-con to SCOTUS.

Any foreign policy analysis that ignored the sectarian divide in Iraq, the intelligence on Saddam, and his non-links to Al-Qaeda is not "spot on." Friedman was a cheerleader for the greatest foreign policy blunder in American history and should be held accountable as such.

["I've been calling them "Generation Q" — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad. But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the country's own good."]

i think maybe he's ignoring what he doesn't want to see.

large numbers of 'generation q' are being active in politics and using their 'online' tendency to support Ron Paul because they're seeing that support of 'mainstream' dems and 'mainstream' repubs produces pretty much the same result

Thomas Coen is right in his assessment of Friedman. But I'd have to respectfully disagree w/Nick Baumann in referring to Friedman as a "liberal public intellectual." Friedman may fancy himself an intellectual (I prefer to think of him more as an oft-wrong, misguided, pompous jerk), but one thing's for sure; he's so conservative that to refer to him as "liberal" is quite laughable. Next we'll be calling Hillary a liberal! C'mon, people .........!

Thomas Friedman has no responsibility to progressives, he defines himself as a pragmatist. He also consistently falls just left of center on a number of issues.