It’s easy to make the case that Barack Obama shouldn’t run for president in 2008. He hasn’t quite finished his first year in the Senate, he has no foreign policy experience, and not incidentally, he’s said he doesn’t want to. But that’s no fun at all. TNR’s Ryan Lizza today makes a surprisingly compelling argument […]
Kevin noted an interesting report from TNR’s Michael Crowley who attended a Center for American Progress forum yesterday on “reforms to combat the increasingly — and shockingly — anti-democratic tendencies of the House of Representatives.” Barney Frank pointed to at least one encouraging thing he’s noticed, though I’d argue it’s not as heartening as Frank […]
The poorly-named American Family Association seems to announce a new boycott at least once a month. Usually the targeted company more or less ignores the silly little religious right group, nothing happens, and the AFA moves on to its next victim. Unfortunately, Ford seems confused about how this is supposed to go. The AFA launched […]
About a week ago, Josh Marshall laid out his vision of a “nice try brigade.” The problem is simple enough — mainstream reporters, anxious to avoid the appearance of bias, are writing articles about corruption in Washington, but are going out of their way to highlight at least one suspected Dem so the list of […]
A couple of weeks ago, Prof. Paul Mirecki chairman of the Religious Studies Department at the University of Kansas, took a firm stand against intelligent-design creationism by including it in a class on “religious mythologies.” A week later, the course was cancelled after Mirecki mocked creationists on a website. This week, creationists responded — with […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Whether former Connecticut Gov. Lowell Weicker (I) challenges Sen. Joe Lieberman next year seems to be a matter of interpretation. The New York Times suggests Weicker is interested, but the AP reports, […]
Before 2004, Tom DeLay won his most competitive House race by 24 points. His was as safe a district as any in the country, and in several instances, Dems didn’t even field a candidate to run against him. Those days are gone. Last year, Richard Morrison, a self-described “no name” candidate, won 42% of the […]
You’ve no doubt heard about the trendy demographic sub-groups that political scientists get excited about. We’ve seen NASCAR Dads, soccer moms, office-park dads, security moms, wired workers, freelance evangelicals, and others. For 2006, there’s a new one — meet “Starbucks Republicans.” This time around, Florida-based Democratic pollster Dave Beattie has his eye on “Starbucks Republicans” […]
The beauty of intelligent-design creationism for the anti-science crowd was that it was supposed to help bridge the divisions within the broader creationist movement. “Young-earth” creationists, who base their views on a literal reading of the Book of Genesis, would be happy that ID proponents are pushing an anti-evolution argument that insists on the existence […]
In case you’ve missed it elsewhere, the San Diego Union-Tribune ran a thorough review of Duke Cunningham’s bribery scandal and his relationship with Defense contractor lobbyist Brent Wilkes. The U-T noted how the extent to which Wilkes, referred to as “co-conspirator No. 1” in the government’s Cunningham filings, would cater to those he hoped to […]