Well, it probably didn’t mean to, but that’s what happened. Bush swung though Ohio (20 electoral votes) yesterday for his 15th trip since taking office in 2001. The purpose of his speech in Cleveland was clear: tout the strength of the economy. You can read the speech yourself and see how unpersuasive it is, but […]
For some reason, I never tire of updates on Republicans trying to undermine the independence of the federal judiciary. It’s just fascinating to me how so-called conservatives take such a radical approach to constitutional principles like the separation of powers. I’ve already written at some length about the GOP’s penchant for court-stripping measures, but now […]
The Republicans — both the RNC and the Bush campaign team — thought they had a strong line of attack against Kerry: his votes to cut military spending in the 1990s. Unfortunately for them, it not only lacked substance, it lacked coherence. Kerry voted to eliminate some programs, but they were the same programs Republicans […]
Bush’s schedule for the day sounds eerily familiar. From the AP today: Bush was to be among the first digging shovels of dirt at the groundbreaking for a new Sept. 11 memorial in East Meadow, N.Y., a Manhattan suburb on Long Island. The quarrel over the ads was shadowing Bush, as at least two groups […]
CNN reported yesterday that the military is about to “up [the] high-tech ante” in the search for Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon is considering beefing up the already enhanced technology U.S. forces are using to search for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This report comes just […]
I can’t tell you how encouraging it is to see Dems put aside their differences, think practically, and act with a greater goal in mind. It happens so infrequently… The frenzy in Colorado over the suddenly-open Senate seat looked like it was going to be a divisive fight on both sides, with several qualified candidates […]
In case you missed it, please check out the stunning report in Salon yesterday about the Office of Special Plans, the agency the Pentagon created to give the administration the intelligence information it wanted to justify a war with Iraq. The OSP is not a new story, of course. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman […]
I have to admit, when he has to read a well-written speech, Bush isn’t half-bad on the stump. It’s when he has to speak off-the-cuff when he runs into trouble. From a speech the president delivered earlier this week: “The march to war affected the people’s confidence. It’s hard to make investment. See, if you’re […]
As if his campaign needed another controversy to doom his chances, Blair Hull, the millionaire businessman running for the Senate in Illinois, admitted yesterday to having used cocaine and sought treatment for alcohol abuse in the 1980s. With the primary just five days away, whatever was left of Hull’s chances will probably evaporate. Just a […]
I used to fall for the hype surrounding the Bush White House’s political operation. These guys are evil geniuses, I thought, always one step ahead with a brilliant strategy in mind. As if this notion needed further debunking, consider the fact that Bush was prepared to pick a “manufacturing czar” who laid off U.S. workers […]