One last note about Iowa. A lot of people have noted the way Jimmy Carter successfully parlayed a victory in Iowa in 1976 into winning the nomination. But from a historical context, Iowa’s results are interesting, but have limited predictive application. If you’re a Kerry fan, you want to focus on Carter in ’76 and […]
There’s plenty of analysis on Iowa from…well, pretty much every website that exists. Alas, I don’t think I have anything particularly fascinating or unique to add. With that in mind, I’ll just add my two cents and move on. In the off chance you rely exclusively on The Carpetbagger Report for information, the all-but final […]
Usually when I think about the debacle of the White House warning the world of Iraq’s massive stockpiles of WMD, I consider the political consequences here in the U.S. The Washington Post ran a terrific front-page article this morning, however, which raised a more important point: The Bush administration’s inability to find weapons of mass […]
Bush’s poll numbers may have enjoyed a little bump after Saddam Hussein was captured, but I think it’s safe to say that bump is gone. A new CBS/New York Times poll shows Bush’s approval rating slipping to 50%, the second lowest level of support his presidency. The same poll showed 45% saying they “disapprove” of […]
Speaking of Dick Cheney (see below), I noticed that the vice president gave his first detailed interview with a major newspaper in over two years yesterday, answering questions from the LA Times and USA Today. There were a couple of interesting exchanges, but on the whole, I’d say the papers missed several huge issues. According […]
Over the weekend, the LA Times discovered that Dick Cheney left his undisclosed location just long enough to join Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for a hunting trip at a private camp in Louisiana. The outing was just three weeks before Scalia and the rest of the high court will hear Cheney’s appeal of lawsuits […]
A couple of people have casually asked me about my predictions for Iowa tonight and I’ve come to firm and unwavering conclusion: I’m not making any predictions. I can reasonably make a case for any of the top four winning, the polls from the last two weeks are all over the place, and the process […]
I personally don’t think this is going to happen, but the American Prospect’s Bob Kuttner wrote a column this week that explains how a divided Democratic electorate may lead to a brokered convention this summer. (Kevin Drum pondered the same question back in November.) It’s a scary thought, but just as importantly, it’s exactly the […]
I can’t figure this out. Just a week after strongly hinting that she’ll be announcing a bid for the Senate, Katherine Harris has apparently decided not to run and will instead seek re-election to the House. The AP is reporting that it just “learned” this information so there’s no explanation as to why Harris has […]
I noticed that blogger-extraordinaire Matthew Yglesias was at an event hosted by the New America Foundation the other day and heard Charlie Cook, a non-partisan election analyst, suggest a provocative thesis. As Matt explained: “Cook suggested that perhaps the best thing for the Democrats would be to lose in 2004, force the Republican Party to […]