movies

Dustin Lance Black (Getty Images)

Dustin Lance Black on His New Film, Obama, and Romney

Milk’s Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black told The Observer that he was opposed to President Obama’s recent declaration of support for same-sex marriage. “Well, because I think marriage is between a man and a woman, I was incredibly upset,” Mr. Black said, biting a nail. He was joking, though in a quiet, grave tone–the premiere Read More

Rick Davis Vs. Rick Davis on Virginia

The McCain campaign has posted an on-line "strategy briefing," in which campaign manager Rick Davis uses a series of charts and maps to paint a rosy picture of the G.O.P. candidate’s fall prospects.

About five minutes into the slideshow, Davis turns to the electoral map and highlights what are matter-of-factly labeled the "solidly Read More

McCain Wins, But Anti-McCain Voters Have Their Say

There were 116 total delegates at stake in the Republican presidential race tonight, and John McCain has apparently won all of them—terrific news for a candidate who began the day about 400 delegates shy of the magic number needed to clinch the nomination.

And two of his primary wins were by convincing margins—in Maryland, where Read More

This Time, Obama Wins the Hillary Voters Too

The losing streak has hit eight for Hillary Clinton, but that’s hardly the worst news to come out of Chesapeake Tuesday for the former first lady.

Nor is the fact that she now trails in most every independent delegate count—even the counts that include the non-binding pledges of superdelegates. And nor, for that matter, is Read More

Celebrating Victories, McCain Mocks Obama

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—John McCain just rounded off his victory speech here by cheekily appropriating one of Barack Obama’s signature lines.

“I promise you I am fired up and ready to go,” he told a cheering crowd.

The Arizona senator’s speech seemed to target Obama more than Clinton, in yet another sign of the shifting dynamics of Read More

Huckabee Makes Things Close, Hillary Doesn't

Signs point to a very long night for Hillary Clinton. Polls are still open in Maryland and in the District of Columbia, but they have just closed in Virginia—and news outlets have already declared Barack Obama the winner by a wide margin.

Virginia was Clinton’s best chance of scoring an upset victory, or at least Read More

The Potomac Stakes: Hillary Must Limit the Damage, McCain Can Put It Away

Here’s what’s at stake in today’s primary contests:

Democrats

Barack Obama is supposed to go three-for-three on the day. Short of engineering an upset victory—which would represent a campaign-changing development—Hillary Clinton’s best hope lies in containing her opponent’s victory margins and keeping the delegate race close, possibly positioning her to declare some kind of moral Read More

Mary Lucier on the Sweet Plains

Mary Lucier is no Sacha Baron Cohen.

You may remember Mr. Cohen masquerading at a Virginia rodeo as the hapless Kazakh journalist in Borat. As seen in the film, the cowboy spectacle is a haven for yahoos, rednecks and astonishingly casual racists. The squirm-inducing comedy confirmed the prejudices of big-city types, who are, of course, Read More

The Foer Family

Screams could be heard echoing across Brooklyn on a clear day this past November, when news of 24-year-old Joshua Foer’s book deal made its way around town. It wasn’t just the ungodly advance Mr. Foer received—an eye-popping $1.25 million—for his first-ever literary venture. Nor was it the fact that the proposal and its celebrity author Read More