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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]