The New York Times ran another one of these entertaining moderates vs. right-wing-base stories today, explaining the ongoing tension between the two factions and using the convention as a news peg. It’s a good piece, but a couple of things jumped out at me. “Frankly, if the president wins walking away with this, maybe the […]
A lawsuit challenging Rep. Rodney “Turncoat” Alexander’s last-minute party switch has succeeded, at least for now. A state judge ruled Monday that the sign-up period should be reopened for the Nov. 2 election in Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District, where incumbent Rep. Rodney Alexander infuriated Democrats by switching to the Republican Party minutes before the qualifying […]
I’ve heard that all politics is local, but I’m usually skeptical about how far up a ballot local troubles can go. In New Jersey, for example, Gov. McGreevey’s (D) troubles don’t appear to be having any effect on the presidential race. Indeed, a new poll shows Kerry’s lead growing in the state. In Alabama, Gov. […]
This move seems so dumb, I can’t even figure out to whom it’s supposed to pander. Cuba, like the western coast of central Florida, faced widespread devastation recently from Hurricane Charley. In a gesture that doesn’t appear to make any sense at all, the Bush administration offered Cuba $50,000 in aid. Cuba, not surprisingly, isn’t […]
Voting difficulties in Florida have reached a point in which parody is no longer possible. Palm Beach in particular, home to the infamous “butterfly ballot,” apparently wants to be the subject of ridicule. It started two weeks ago, when voters received absentee ballots with outdated instructions telling them their signatures must be witnessed or their […]
The Bush campaign hasn’t done much in telling voters what the president would do with another term — just vote for him, they’ll tell us why afterwards — but his platform is not without ideas. Of course, whether those ideas are any good is another matter. Almost four year ago, at the second presidential debate, […]
It’s a shame democracy is dependent on an informed electorate, because the public is still terribly confused about pretty basic facts. More than half of Americans, 54 percent, continue to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or a program to develop them before the United States invaded last year, according to a poll released […]
Salon’s Eric Boehlert had a terrific item recently noting how national media attention on Iraq shifted in late June due to the so-called “handoff” of “sovereignty.” Boehlert noted that conditions in Iraq haven’t improved at all, but perceptions changed about the “end” of our occupation. The hand-over marked a turning point in the level and […]
It’s bad enough that the Bush campaign will go to extraordinary lengths to keep critics away from the president, but it’s worse when those who do get to share criticism get punished for it. A man who heckled President Bush at a political rally was fired from his job at an advertising and design company […]
I can appreciate that we can’t let fear of terrorism run our lives, but I have to admit, I’d seriously reconsider going to the GOP convention if I heard about this: [US News & World Report hears] that some conventiongoers are being asked to carry next-of-kin phone numbers on their persons, should emergency workers need […]