Today in Book Promotion

Ilan Goldenberg, policy director at the National Security Network, has a very kind writeup of Heads in the Sand that expresses many of the book's core ideas and helps apply them to the current moment. I thought I also might link to Spencer Ackerman's two part live-blog (one, two) of Friday's CAP event and once again to the page for the FDL book salon where I've now added some new remarks.

Comments

give it a rest.

you are undermining the credibility of your blog with this embarrassing self-promotion.

Posted by anon | April 28, 2008 1:03 PM

Heh, I don't thinnk your book promotion has been embarrassing or excessive; but I'm still hoping you'll answer my foreign policy question, which I assume you've addressed in your book. You said that "Clinton and Papa Bush ran policies that made us better off". I asked if you would elaborate on how their Iraq sanctions and Panama, Kuwait, Bosnia, and Kosovo interventions made me or my grandchildren better off.

Posted by Gary Sugar | April 28, 2008 1:51 PM

Read the book, yo!

I will say that I'm not sure I would stand by Panama. I don't know the details of the operation, but in general I'd be suspicious. I argue in the book that there's an imperialist (bad) and an internationalist (good) thread in U.S. foreign policy and that our policy toward Latin America has tended to reflect the imperialist thread. The point isn't really to divvy presidents up into good and bad, since most are mixed.

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | April 28, 2008 2:32 PM

Oh, HO! We're answering questions from blog readers now, are we, Matt? There's a FIRST!

Want to try answering my two questions on Iran?

Thought not.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | April 28, 2008 5:46 PM

Matt,
One of your comments on FDL was,

It’s a good ad. You can tell from how pissed the GOP gets about people bringing this up that they’re afraid of this line of attack. I think it’s imperative for liberals not to fall for this BS that the quote is somehow “out of context.” Look at it in context, McCain is saying what he believes — that we should stay in Iraq indefinitely, at any price. [Emphasis added]

I think the italicized comment is the essential issue, itself deserving of an ad. The actual ad is too easily painted as misleading. Your comment is not, and gets at the heart of the matter.

Posted by jason | April 28, 2008 9:08 PM