Still trying to figure out what ‘program activities’ are

I saw this, thought it was hilarious, and decided to share it with you. Addressing the WMD issue in the State of the Union the other night, Bush said the following: “[T]he Kay report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations.” […]

Why did Dean lose in Iowa?

I talked a bit yesterday about how Dean fell apart in Iowa, but I wanted to expand a bit on figuring out why he did so poorly. It’s no trivial matter — if Dean can fix his problems, he can still recover and win the nomination; if not, he’s toast. On paper, Howard Dean seemed […]

Where does all that money go?

Slate’s Explainer feature, usually written by Brendan Koerner, raised a really interesting question yesterday: Where do campaign war chests go when candidates quit? I’ve always wondered about that, but never knew the details. Dick Gephardt, for example, withdrew yesterday with millions of dollars left his campaign accounts. Even after paying off some debts, he’s still […]

Dean retools his message, but concedes a little too much

I got an interesting email from the Dean campaign this morning with a decidedly different message and tone from the ones sent out the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses. I noticed two changes, one positive and the other misguided. First, Dean’s email dropped a lot of the divisive rhetoric that has marked his […]

Lieberman’s secret plan to outsmart Karl Rove

Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign, if you can call it that, is getting increasingly less coherent as time goes on. Yesterday, ABC News’ The Note noticed that Lieberman’s team has a new pitch to convince voters that he’s the man to challenge Bush in November. “After telling voters about their Clear Choices and the Third and […]

Reactions to Bush’s SOTU

This clearly wasn’t Bush’s best speech. If this was supposed to be the kick-off for Karl Rove’s campaign strategy, I’m not exactly intimidated. I remember reading a Joe Klein account a couple of years ago about Newt Gingrich’s reaction, as Speaker of the House, to one of Bill Clinton’s State of the Union addresses: “We’re […]

Don’t forget to watch the SOTU

In a cleverly-timed speech, stealing some of the thunder of the Dem presidential candidates just 24 hours after the Iowa caucuses, President Bush will deliver the always-interesting State of the Union address tonight. We already know Bush will probably talk in a little detail about his Mars/Moon plan, tax-free savings accounts for medical expenses, and […]

Dean’s bizarre concession speech in Iowa

OK, one more final word about Iowa. Did you happen to catch Howard Dean on TV last night acknowledging that he came in a distant third? In the past few hours, I think I’ve heard almost as much about that speech as I have the actual results. My first inclination is to say that this […]

9/11 Commission wants more time, Bush says no

Putting aside talk about Iowa, let’s shift attention to the guy the Dem candidates want to replace, and more specifically, Bush’s work with the independent 9/11 Commission. Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff had a solid story (and good scoop) last week explaining the behind-the-scenes battle going on over the Commission’s calendar. As Isikoff explained, the panel is […]

Who wins, who loses from Gephardt’s departure (aka, and then there were seven)

Dick Gephardt will withdraw from the presidential race in a little less than two hours, narrowing the field to seven candidates (five real ones once you discount Sharpton and Kucinich). Who’ll benefit most from his absence? Gephardt, in many ways, was a throw-back candidate, representing an old school Democratic philosophy. While his rivals presented themselves […]