CNN To Release Debates Under Creative Commons 151
remove office writes "After calls from several prominent bloggers and a couple of presidential candidates, CNN has agreed to release the footage from its upcoming June presidential debates uncopyrighted. Senator Barack Obama was the first candidate to call for all presidential debates to be released under Creative Commons, with fellow Democratic hopeful John Edwards following shortly afterwards. CNN will be the first to do so with their June 3rd and 5th Democratic and Republican debates. MSNBC hosted the first presidential debates recently but refused to release them under Creative Commons, opting instead to post online only commercial-ridden clips in Windows Media format."
On a closely related sidenote: (Score:5, Insightful)
"Uncopyrighted" would probably mean to have the work put into the public domain - that's, however, not true for the CC-licenses, nor is it for any other "free" license (like GNU GPL, GNU FDL, BSDL, MITL and Co.) I know. All these licenses cleverly make use of copyright to guarantee certain freedoms and/or restrictions.
Re:On a closely related sidenote: (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't know how that rumour got started.
Re:On a closely related sidenote: (Score:5, Funny)
Untrue. I've prohibited it in my house. If you want to disclaim copyright on a work then you can go someplace else and do it. My house, my rules.
Re:On a closely related sidenote: (Score:4, Funny)
It's the sort of thinking we need to overthrow this system. Start thinking of ourselves as sovereign peoples, sovereign households - streets - communities.
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I've lived in places where this happens, like West Philly where I am now. People get shot for walking down the wrong street.
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On a serious note, this is NOT the thinking we need at all. It's the sort of thinking that will get you behind bars, that's all. Protesting against the system should be done by voting, not by violating the laws you disagree with. We cannot ignore the apparatus of democracy and then claim that the system failed us. I personally don't think we have become a totalitarian country (US) just yet, and if anybody was about to refute me by saying that, pl
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So I get to vote every 3 years or so (Im in Australia) and neither of the major parties that always take power represent me. It's bullshit. Voting does nothing. The major parties are paid for by big business. And because they have the most money, they can afford more advertising etc to brainwash all the people who take no interest in politics.
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Also, nobody said that democracy is ideal in any way. If science was as fanatically reliant on public consensus, we would
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Initially with young indifferent voters it might not make so much difference but as they get older and more mature, as they have to vote any how, they start to think who they are going to vote for and why. They might no make better decisions but because by far the majority do vote, it results in the moderation of politics, nothing to extreme can get up or survive
You guys eat people?!!? (n/t) (also n/funny) (Score:2)
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Then criminals can have rape houses where rape isn't illegal, houses where child molestation is legal, distribution centers for illegal weapons... What a great idea!
Take the idea of the sovereign individual. Everyone has their own sovereignty. Now rape houses and molestation houses are clearly a violation of the individuals sovereignty. Saying you have the sovereign right to abuse someone elses sovereignty is not really what I was thinking.
The idea of anarchy is that you can do what you like so long as you are not denying others of their freedom.
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En et harm none, do what ye will...
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Juries are not perfect, but no form of government is. Their are two levels of juries. Their are trial juries, and the grand jury.
You raised many good points that I have always feared about runaway juries, especially runaway grand juries.
I had a lawyer defend me once. He arranged a civil suit at the one year deadline from the incident. Immediately after he filed suit, I happened to be indicted by the gra
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I'll leave you unimpressed with a couple of quick answers.
Jury members are selected by lot.
Jury members decide who collects evidence.
Jury members decide who the experts are going to be.
Juries will sometimes make consistently good, rational judgements, but not always, they are human.
I never implied that the society will be "smoothly-functioning". I think you are looking for Utopia o
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Your criminal houses are trying to allow something that's prohibited. This is not possible, for the very good reason you point out.
In general, you can forbid thing's that aren't; but you can't allow things that are forbidden. Unless you're forbidden from forbiddi
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For those who don't remember their (Mounty Python) classics [celtia.info]
Re:On a closely related sidenote: (Score:5, Informative)
Thus all books are copyrighted by someone - but it may not always be the original author.
Thus every book published will have someone who holds the books copyright.
I doubt Sweden is the only country that have laws like this.
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Which, of course, is absurd.
Don't let the americans find out.
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In Sweden one can only publish books that are copyrighted. Any book that has noone claiming copyright for it means that the printer of the book are forced to take the responsibilty _and_ the copyright for the book. If the original author are found he/she cant disclaim their copyright.
Thus all books are copyrighted by someone - but it may not always be the original author.
What happens when a publisher or author who owns a copyright dies without heirs? Or if an author submits a book to a publisher using a false id? Or if a publisher prints a book anonymously?
Thus all books are copyrighted by someone - but it may not always be the original author.
Thus every book published will have someone who holds the books copyright.
Hmmm...sorry, but I'm really sceptical about this claim. Got any references to substantiate it?
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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You are on the way to no public domain.
What you say!!
You have no chance to disclaim make your freedom.
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Out of curiosity, does anyone know the reasoning behind the no-public-domain law?
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Even worse than that... (Score:2)
Re:Even worse than that... (Score:5, Funny)
(Sorry but the enthusiasm with which you said that was a little much or at least that's how I read it
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I ain't got much, but I have "some rights"
(still, in the USA)
Now, where did I put my gun?
-geekd
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Nice made up bullshit, bozo.
On another note -- kickass CNN! This is a good deal for everyone (CNN literally gets their logo plastered ALL OVER the place)
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The BSD, MIT, and a few other licenses, are such a tiny step away from public domain, that it's pointless (and pedantic) to go out of your way to make the distinction.
.c file, but that is all.
Yeah, you aren't allowed to change those 3 lines at the top of every
Uncopyrighted... (Score:3, Funny)
Is of course quite different from a Creative Commons license. (Assuming by "uncopyrighted" they mean "into the public domain").
Seems like a good idea, anyway. What's the point of having a debate if you don't let people debate the debate?
(That was a rhetorical question, please don't comment on it).
Re:Uncopyrighted... (Score:5, Funny)
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oh wait...
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Seems like a good idea, anyway. What's the point of having a debate if you don't let people debate the debate?
I think this is a good trend. Once the debate is recorded, let it be debated over and over again on the Internet. Perhaps this will one day lead to more honest campaigns and candidates. I'd like to see each of the debaters face the record of their campaign, by being presented with whatever the Internet has to say about them, including their voting history (what they supported and didn't) for the last 15 years or so. I would hope that this would keep the debates and election from being about the buzzword is
Creative Commons != copyright free (Score:2)
The article and summary seem to be treating "Creative Commons" and "copyright free" as synonyms. This is not the case. "Creative Commons" is an umbrella term for a number of different licenses and a dedication to the public domain. It's entirely possible (and usually the case) that Creative Commons works are copyrighted and not in the public domain.
Does anybody know if they are really dedicating the footage to the public domain, or are they using one of the more restrictive CC licenses?
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Yes, but as Vain Gloria points out, Creative Commons offers a public domain dedication too. In common usage, the term "Creative Commons works" include those works that have been dedicated to the public domain using the CC dedication.
Read my fucking comment. The article seems confused. It says "uncopyrighted" in the headline, but keeps talking about
Re:Creative Commons != copyright free (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, in answer to your question, a specific license has not been announced yet, but CNN has indicated that people will be free to do whatever they like with it (remix it, edit it, use it in a documentary, post it anywhere they want, etc).
One of the specific points that Obama had was that he wanted the footage to be free for people to use in creating things like remixed YouTube videos, etc ("end user created content").
The Devil's in the Details (Score:2)
Furthermore, as has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread, one must be careful which CC license is chosen. Gone are the days when all CC licenses featured a common baseline of permissions/freedoms. One might recall the recent C-SPAN licensing on Congressional floor coverage (and related footage) where the licensing
Interesting (Score:2)
Indeed (Score:5, Informative)
The mainstream media is silent on these candidates, but Digg is abuzz with Ron Paul and Mike Gravel. Please looking up these two and consider actively spreading the word about who you like (either of these two or other candidates you find). Or do you guys want to be stuck with a Bush vs. Kerry like candidates in 2008 with both sides sucking?
Ron Paul:
http://digg.com/search?s=%22ron+paul%22&submit=Se
Mike Gravel:
http://digg.com/search?s=%22mike+gravel%22&submit
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Actually its funny.. if you watch it almost seems like the media is taking extra time to cut out Ron Paul and ignore his existence. It's like they think he is bad and will go away if they don't mention him.
ABC had a poll on the debates up yesterday with 9 candidates on it.. excluding *only* one.. Ron Paul how absurd.
I say the non-endorsement of these candidates by the main stream media make them even more attractive.
Paul/Gravel in '08!
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Breaking news : now MSNBC will do the same (Score:2)
(Pay attention to the MS prefix in MSNBC and you will get what i meant)
Re: Breaking news : now MSNBC will do the same (Score:2)
Of course they will claim it's something new, patent it, and of course hype the hell out of how they are the "openest news network" on the planet.
PS... I know this is a troll, and I know 'openest' is not a word
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that premade declaration my friend, wont save you from grammar police.
A little late in the day, isn't it? (Score:2)
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You can watch them on YouTube anyhow (Score:4, Informative)
Just search for "republican presidential debate part" or "democrat presidential debate part" respectively on YouTube. They're split into 9 minute chunks.
I think it would be awfully bad form for MSNBC to pull these from YouTube. But I commend the candidates and CNN for making this issue public. We shouldn't have to rely on the good will (or hesitant takedown action) of MSNBC in order to get coverage of the men and women, one of whom will in a relatively short amount of time hold the highest political office in our democracy.
But sometimes I'm not sure why I care, or that I do. Especially when I see headlines like this: "FLASH: FOXNEWS O'REILLY TOPS MSNBC GOP DEBATE".
And look at the viewership numbers. That's right, not only did less than 1% of elligible voters even WATCH that debate, MORE people watched some blowhard talk about the debate than watched the debate itself.
This should dominate mainstream broadcast and print media. This should preempt regular programming on every broadcast channel.
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Calm down. This is just a couple democratic PRIMARY debates we're talking about. Later, you can expect some debates to get broadcast on various network channels.
As for EVERY channel, that's just idiotic. I am capable of changing the channel myself, thank you.
There are plenty of people that can't vote, anyhow, and don't need to be annoyed. There are also plenty of people who simpl
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Suggesting that viewing these debates should be mandatory is silly, especially when virtually no answers are non-rehearsed. It's also not debate when you have a bunch of people simply being asked questions. A real
Voter eligibility? (Score:2)
If people do not wish to vote, they have that right. If they choose not to vote, and then complain that their elected officials are horrible, they have that right too, although they look like fools as a result.
Does someone still look like a fool if he complains about laws enacted by legislators who were elected before the complainer became old enough to vote? (Specifically, I was too young to vote when the 105th Congress, responsible for the NET Act, the Bono Act, and the DMCA, was elected.) And does voting for a candidate representing a third party such as Green or Libertarian guarantee the right to complain? (Don't blame me; I voted for Badnarik.)
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\joey
Commercial-Ridden Clips? (Score:5, Insightful)
Come on. The debates themselves ARE commercial-ridden clips. The pandering? The acting? The party-line quotes? The weeks of "prep time" these alleged law-makers indulge while honing their so-called "debate" skills? The "I'm presidential" BS? So what if MSCNBCNSC runs them with commercials.
After two stories on this in a few days, is Slashdot sure it wants to hang their hats here on this issue?
The debate format died 20 years ago, was resurrected by Saint Perot, and then was again laid to a peaceful sleep.
The debates now are nothing more than traps. If you attend a debate and get caught in a trap, you are dead. If you lose your temper or slip up, or say "um" too many times, you are dead. Does anyone really think that some candidate will suddenly have some nation-shocking insight that will capture us?
All debates now require that news programs compare every candidate's makeup to Richard Nixon in 1960. WTF? CCGIGO. Creative-commons garbage in...
Moe
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Re:Commercial-Ridden Clips? (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Is this person toeing my chosen party's line well enough?
2. Do I "perceive" ("gut feeling," truthiness, et cetera) this person properly?
The GP is absoultely correct in his statement. In this case, I think that there are two root causes. Firstly, our government and the career politicians who comprise it do not want an informed public, by any means. An informed majority would be disastrous for these people. However, it is rather difficult to suppress information within a country that is supposed to be democratic. Dissidents do not just disappear without a trace (yet), and journalists aren't thrown in jail for articles which are critical of the government. A delicate balance must be maintained: the majority must believe that they are informed and conscious, and the information must be ladled out "properly," i.e. dumbed down to "talking points," presented as black and white, with no grey areas, and so on. In traditional totalitarian or dictatorial states, the public is left completely uninformed. That method will not work in the United States. In ours and other pseudo-democratic states, the goal is to have a misinformed public.
The second cause, I believe, is affected somewhat by the first one. The majority get their news on the run, and from the humongous conglomerates such as CNN or Fox. They do not research anything that they are exposed to further. They see the latest "Left vs. Right: Smackdown!" show on CNN, watch it for awhile, take one side or the other, and call it a day. This is how the majority establish their stances politically. When the option of further research and the establishment of a view based on the facts instead of the opinion of a talking head on a "news-er-tainment" network are given (and I have experienced this firsthand, many times), they claim that they are just "too busy" to worry about things like that. While I realize that it does take a bit more time and effort to become an informed individual, is it really too much? I also think that it might have a lot to do with the fact that policy-makers decisions, as opposed to one hundred years ago or more, do not appear to affect a great deal of our lives. The policy may be a ticking timebomb, but the majority do not realise it.
All of this amounts to what we have today: debates that are, in reality, nothing more than popularity contests. As for a solution, I honestly do not know if there is one in the short term. The majority in this country cannot be forced to care enough to become informed; they must choose to do so themselves. I have never had much faith in most people when it comes to things like this, but then again, I am a devout pessimist. Maybe I will be proven wrong at some point, who knows?
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Also, I think the majority watches CNN on accident. As in "oops, I meant channel 63, not 36" accident. I don't think they spend enough time watching to bother forming opinions on things, as long as the impact is distant and abstract.
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Sorry for being off-topipc, but, out of curiosity, why do people claim trademark rights in phrases like "Good Thing"?
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While a popular viewpoint, I think it's completely wrong. In reality most voters are really issue voters. They have one or two issues that are extremely important to them (ask a farmer about subsidies/tariffs or a factory worker about immigration/outsourcing). They tend to seek out candidates that support they're particular issues of interest. They then select a particular candida
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When the emotional tense of the debate changes (for example, someone asks about the families of fallen troops in Iraq), are they sufficiently aware to notice, or are they locked into their message? This
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Hmm, I have an idea. Maybe we could release these debates under some sort of "free" license. Then, politically motivated people such as youself could remove the annoying commentary. Since the debates would not be copyrighted in the traditional sense this improved version could then be distributed.
youtube (Score:5, Insightful)
Youtube is going to be clogged with eight-billion videos of clips out of context and "deep" bad voiceovers explaining why [Candidate X] is the worst/best thing after the devil/Jesus
And the annoyance of having links of all of them e-mailed to me pales to the joy that America is becoming (slightly) more democratic
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OK, true. But there is no good reason to want one, either.
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This is great news (Score:2)
I used the latest version of Firefox, Safari, OS X, and the Flash plugin on both machines. STILL was unable to watch on Microsoft's site. On OS X I also had the Microsoft WMV Quicktime plugins [microsoft.com].
Ju
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Work to some extent sure. But to be broken unless you use all MS software is to be expected with MS services.
Somewhat related question: redistribution (Score:2)
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I was having trouble getting it to load at first (Gentoo/Firefox 2.0.0.3/Flash 9), so I checked to be sure it was accepting cookies/javascipt and refreshed several times. Nothing: most of the page wasn't visible, no links worked, just the menu image and "loading..." text. Next I checked the source, cried a little, then changed the user agent. The page changed finally, to insist I needed IE (no mention of firefox), so I set it back to default, closed the tab, hit the link again and...it loaded up fine. I
I'm offended that it's legal to copyright this. (Score:2, Insightful)
Personally, I think they should be compelled to air ??? hours of campaign content to help run the system that makes them their fortu
It's all in your head (Score:2)
If the pubic makes political copyright a larger issue, the media will meet that demand as well (as in fact they just did).
Plus, once the candidates are elected, all of their speeches given "in capacity" automatically become public domain.
What is it exactly that offends you here?
But Which CC License? (Score:2, Informative)
Unfortunately, none of the referenced articles/links specifies which of the various Creative Commons licenses will be used to release the debates. Having just released a photo project under a CC license, it appears that there are at least four basickinds of CC licenses, and some varients on them:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ [creativecommons.org]
The no-derivitives license in particular could have a big impact, especially for people looking to throw up stuff on YouTube and whatnot.
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The Free Software Foundation warns about CC licences [gnu.org]:
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That might be because there's no indication it WILL be CC at all...
If you would have clicked-through to CNN's press release, it simply says: "available without restrictions"
Nobody knows any more than that. Complaining about the different CC licenses, like CNN is trying to use a loophole to keep it restricted, is nonsense, and completely off-topic.
Wonderful! (Score:2)
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Under C-SPAN's contract, they use government-provided cameras on the House and Senate floor for constitutional reasons. Everything that is shot on government equipment is in the public domain by default. The only copyrighted-material that C-SPAN creates is material they make with their own cameras (such as footage from events outside of Congress, like the White House Correspondents Association dinner, etc).
There was a big hullabaloo over whether or not C-SPAN should us
Let me be the first to say.... (Score:5, Funny)
Creative Commons!=no copyright (Score:4, Insightful)
FTS:
How does a CC license mean the same as noncopyrighted?
IT DOESN'T! Creative Commons, like the GPL, relies on copyright to license works.
Furthermore, according to the CNN website, [cnn.com],
To me, that reads "public domain" and not even Creative Commons. What am I missing?
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Which is the exact OPPOSITE of what I stated; go back and read the part where I stated that a CC license RELIES on copyright.
Since you stated I am as "ridiculously mis-informed,"
Admit minor parties, then I'll care. (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't care what license they release the presidential debates under. It will be "closed source" until the debates establish reasonable guidelines under which minor party candidates are allowed to participate.
I'm a Democrat, but the exclusion of Independents and candidates from the Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Socialist, and Reform parties (among others) is a far worse abuse of power than anything done by Microsoft at the height of its antitrust powers.
These are not non-partisan debates -- they are bipartisan affairs, and the rules are deliberately constructed to preserve the political monopolies of the two main parties. It makes for boring, highly scripted debates, where the same old questions receive the same pat soundbite answers. The U.S. Constitution does not provide for a two-party system, and voters deserves better.
Any party or independent campaign which has gotten itself on enough state ballots to theoretically win an election if they carried those states' electoral votes belongs in the presidential debates. As it stands now, a candidate's party must also meet an unrealistic standard of previous electoral performance. This is pretty much impossible, given that minor parties are denied the millions of dollars of free advertising doled out by the media to the already well-funded Democrats and Republicans.
Rather than talking about open licensing for a series of closed debates, let's talk about forbidding their free broadcast over public airwaves until they amount to more than an undocumented campaign contribution by the networks.
Open the damn debates and quit feigning openness with this BS about a Creative Commons license.
CNN is just doing it for the money. (Score:2)
This is about money. NBC refuses, Fox refuses, CBS, ABC refuse... and CNN says "Look over here guys, we'll do it!" And now CNN gets their name everywhere on youtube. This is al
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And if you trust CNN or any of these news networks.. such as FOX NEWS, MSNBC... you're insane.
Because, as we all know, CNN and the other networks have perfected the science of computer voice synthesis and developed 3D CGI techniques to perfectly duplicate human beings, or they've found perfect lookalikes and soundalikes for every candidate in these debates and is faking the entire process.
Be careful! They're also after your precious bodily fluids!
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debates? (Score:2)
If using the creative commons license increases the exposure of these sleaze-fests that hardly seems like a good thing.
p.s.
Dear "debate" moderators, grow a farking pair.
The debaters are not your lords and masters, YOU are in charge and have a job to do.
Re:Presidential debates (Score:4, Funny)
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they amount to a stretch mark
on, say, Rosie O.
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Look, I don't know all the details about those incidents you referenced (though I heard about the Myspace thing), and without hearing Obama's side of the story, it does sound like his campaign went too far. But golly, calling Obama "authoritarian" just makes you sound uninformed.
People accuse Obama of being many things—too deliberative, too self-doubting, too lightweight, even fake. Nobody, to my knowledge, accuses him of being "authori
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