Page 3 - Machine Made News Today

The Nation, check out our latest issue. Subscribe to Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? In his recently published autobiography, A Promised Land, former president Barack Obama disparages two very different world leaders by comparing them to the ward bosses who ran Tammany Hall, the legendar...

To work as a joke at that dinner, joining us, a former speechwriter for president obama. hes now head writer for funnier guys, also joining us, a historian of new york politics, the author of "machine made", david, tell us what the writing pressure is going into this dinner. a lot of things can go wrong here. >> yeah, i mean, this is a very strange ritual. and it comes at a really intense time in a campaign, so both sides have been at each others throats for weeks, and now suddenly they have to ...

Guys, also joining us, a historian of new york politics, the author of "machine made", david, tell us what the writing pressure is going into this dinner. a lot of things can go wrong here. >> yeah, i mean, this is a very strange ritual. and it comes at a really intense time in a campaign, so both sides have been at each others throats for weeks, and now suddenly they have to step back and kind of be funny for an evening and in the most pleasant of campaigns it can be an awkward moment, and this...

Has made it clear his client wants to cut a deal. if he has immunity from the relevant entities hell talk. thats what wildsteins lawyer is saying. there are a the lot of balls in the air here. a lot we still dont know. a lot that is still to play out. so we figure wed look at the possibility that christie is able to emerge from all of this with the political viability intact. what would have to happen for that to happen? what would have to be true? what do you need to believe right now if you be...

>> in the spotlight tonight, putins political machine. on rueters.com, this group of burly motorcyclists who see themselves as road warriors, fighting for the greater glory of mother russia. theyre known as the night wolves and putin himself has ridden with them on that icon of american wanderlust, a harley davidson, even as russia was preparing to send troops to crimea to claim the peninsula from ukraines new government. the night wolves announced that they would ride to the troubled region to ...

But when you claim to be above that, youre not going to be very effective. one of the characters in my book, ed flynn, who was very close to franklin roosevelt and was sort of raised by tammany. he had a word for people and it was the worst word you could possibly use -- amateur. >> it would have been an amateur that would have walked into tammany hall that said hey, i have a plan to get back at this mayor. it involves hurting the voters and leaving them stuck in traffic for hours and end. there...

Tammany hall that said hey, i have a plan to get back at this mayor. it involves hurting the voers and leaving them stuck in traffic for hours and end. theres no one at tammany hall that wouldnt have said youre absolutely crazy. >> if youre going to create a scandal, make sure its a scandal people dont understand. and people understand traffic jams. >> the important book is called "machine made -- tammany hall and the creation of modern politics. it takes us all the way to the presidency of fdr....