In recent years, the idea of pay-by-channel cable television has caught on with a broad audience, but conservatives have been particularly keen on the idea. By selecting only those channels they want to pay for, conservative families could stop subsidizing networks they find morally offensive, and save some money on their cable bill in the […]
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: * A new Field Poll in California shows that only 37% of California’s likely voters are inclined to re-elect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November, though his Dem rivals are not well known statewide. […]
A new Quinnipiac poll is out this morning, offering a pretty thorough take on how Americans perceive the president’s warrantless-search program, among other things. At this point, the clear majority of Americans are right where the Democrats are. By a 76 – 19 percent margin, American voters say the government should continue monitoring phone calls […]
Speaking of Katrina, there’s an interesting controversy brewing about Bush pulling strings to get a lucrative contract for a major GOP donor. No, not that Bush, the other one. A top House Democrat released e-mails Tuesday detailing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s role in pushing a $236 million federal contract for Carnival Cruise Lines to house […]
Sen. Barack Obama’s proposed deal with American auto manufacturers seems like the kind of innovative idea we expect from him. And as a policy matter, it makes a lot of sense. Trying to jump-start gains in auto fuel efficiency after decades of inaction, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is proposing an unusual swap for the Big […]
Last night, NBC Nightly News reported that the White House did not necessarily consider the new Katrina video as a political problem. NBC reported, “Tonight a White House official says the tape does not contradict anything the Bush Administration has said.” I suspect the Bush gang went from 1 to 10 on the damage-control meter […]
There’s been considerable debate for six months about what Bush didn’t know about Hurricane Katrina and when he didn’t know it, which makes the newly-released video something close to a smoking gun. A newly leaked video recording of high-level government deliberations the day before Hurricane Katrina hit shows disaster officials emphatically warning President Bush that […]
I’ll have more on this in the morning, but in the meantime, the White House is going to have a very tough time spinning this one. In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives […]
During his confirmation process, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito kept an arms-length distance between himself and any of the controversial figures in the GOP base. After Karl Rove’s controversial phone call to James Dobson about Harriet Miers, this was especially true about the controversial Focus on the Family chief. But now that Alito is on […]
Chris Matthews was on the Today show this morning and, citing the recent CBS poll, made an interesting — and for Matthews, surprisingly astute — observation about the national mood. (via Kleiman) “The people don’t like the President even more than they don’t like his policies.” That’s true. Looking at the most recent numbers, the […]