Eric Alterman brought up an exciting political opportunity yesterday: Senator Barney Frank. If John Kerry gets the Democratic nomination and ultimately wins the White House, there’d obviously be a vacancy in the Senate. Apparently, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), one of my favorite House members, is prepared to make a run for Kerry’s seat. If for […]
As important as Iowa and New Hampshire are in the nominating process, next Tuesday’s seven contests — Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina — will have an even bigger impact on picking the Dem nominee. Iowa and New Hampshire offered candidates a total of 67 potential delegates. Feb. 3 primaries, […]
I’ve never really understood the wisdom of term limits. I suppose the idea is that experienced public officials should be replaced, as often as possible, with less experienced ones to avoid some ambiguous sense of “entrenched” leadership. Or something like that. Anyway, my sense is that term limit supporters usually target high-level political offices such […]
I noticed (via Tapped) a hilarious column in yesterday’s Boston Globe. Let’s call it today’s “must-read.” In it, Globe columnist Brian McGrory explained, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, that political reporters have identified the real problem with elections — those damn voters. As McGrory put it: Voters, come in, please. Take a seat. We […]
As I’m sure all of you know by now, Joe Trippi, Howard Dean’s campaign manager, left the campaign yesterday, rather than accept a demotion. Let’s get the obvious observations out of the way. Campaign in disarray after two embarrassing defeats? Check. Campaign paralyzed by confusion and indecision? Check. Panicky supporters? Check. Media drumbeat about Dean’s […]
I had no intention of returning to this issue again, but Bush’s confusion about pre-war Iraq is still troubling me. Bush spoke with reporters briefly yesterday after welcoming Polish President Kwasniewski to the White House. One reporter noted that David Kay, the administration’s hand-picked inspector sent to Iraq to search for WMD, has found nothing […]
To see a once interesting writer fade before our very eyes into a bizarre, incoherent rambler is very sad. The truth is, I’m almost beginning to feel sorry for the New York Times’ Bill Safire. Here’s a man who was a successful speechwriter for Richard Nixon, a best-selling author, and an almost-legendary newspaper columnist for […]
Paul O’Neill, Bush’s former Treasury Secretary, relayed to Ron Suskind recently what it was like to talk to the president about U.S. fiscal policies shortly after Bush’s inauguration. O’Neill, explaining why he believes Bush was “disengaged,” said the initial conversation didn’t go very well. O’Neill said, “I went in with a long list of things […]
I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen or heard someone talking about a Kerry-Edwards ticket for the Dems in 2004. A small sampling of the many observers who’ve brought it up in just the past few days include Saletan, Yglesias, Alterman, the New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg, plus a big item about […]
Yesterday I talked about how off the pollsters were in Iowa last week. Did they redeem themselves in New Hampshire? By and large, yes. Of the five major polls I was watching, all five got the top two correct. One of the outlets — the Marist Institute poll — was almost perfect, predicting a 13-point […]