A few weeks ago, Kevin Drum posed a discussion question to his readers, asking them which they’d prefer Dems win in November, the White House or control over Congress. The overwhelming majority wanted the presidency, usually to help re-establish a sensible foreign policy and/or appoint reasonable judges to the federal judiciary. One of the things […]
National Republican leaders have done their very best to avoid an intra-party confrontation over this year’s platform, particularly over the GOP’s favorite wedge issues — abortion and gay rights. As Bob Novak noted recently: The suspicion has grown that President Bush’s re-election strategists — Karl Rove and Karen Hughes — do not want the open […]
It’s a cliché because it’s true: the presidential election will probably come down to Florida. And for the time being, Florida is looking pretty good for John Kerry. The two big non-partisan polls in the state, conducted after the Dems’ convention, are showing Kerry’s lead in the ultimate swing state getting bigger. Quinnipiac says Kerry […]
The Office of Legal Policy, that wacky Justice Department office that said the government should feel free to torture whomever they please as part of a war on terror, is at it again. This time, the OLP has given the DoJ the authority to send federal agents to interrogate Bush critics who might protest at […]
Bush, last week: Larry King: You first were opposed to the 9/11 Commission and then changed. Why? George Bush: Not really. King: You weren’t opposed? Bush: Well, I just wanted to make sure that it was done the right way. Bush, in May 2002: President Bush said Thursday he opposes establishing a special commission to […]
About a month ago, John Judis, Spencer Ackerman, and Massoud Ansari wrote a devastating piece for The New Republic titled, “July Surprise.” The article’s conclusion was almost too disgusting to believe. The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce [high-value targets] by the election. According to one source […]
We all had some fun last week laughing at Bush’s inability to answer a question about what he believes tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century. The president looked (and sounded) pretty foolish when he said, “Tribal sovereignty means just that; it’s sovereign. You’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty, and you’re viewed as a […]
If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you’ve hopefully come to expect this. If you’re new, welcome; we do this every Friday afternoon. It’s my weekly round-up of statewide presidential polls released over the last seven days. This week isn’t quite as big as last week, but there’s still some encouraging data that […]
I didn’t mind Lehrer going solo for the debates in 2000 and 1996, but this year, he’s getting some help. Jim Lehrer, host of PBS’s “News Hour,” will be a moderator for the presidential debates, but unlike past election years, he will divide the work with ABC’s Charlie Gibson and CBS’s Bob Schieffer. The Commission […]
I can appreciate the fact that Republicans probably get a little tired of calling someone a “liberal.” It’s their own fault; they’ve used it too much and the word has lost its meaning. Sure, the GOP had some fun with it in the ’80s and it worked against Mondale and Dukakis. “Liberal” became a dirty […]