Last week’s inane discussion about whether Hillary Clinton played the “gender card” after the most recent debate seemed, thankfully, to be dying on the vine. The media was a little too excited to have a new narrative to bat around, but the truth is, Clinton never actually said sexism drove her Democratic rivals to criticize […]
One would like to think that the Republican Party has advanced to the point in which a debate over torture would no longer be necessary, but we’re apparently not quite there yet. Given the circumstances, I suppose we should be pleased that there are still voices of opposition within the GOP at all. Rudy Giuliani’s […]
If you listen to White House officials, Iran’s nuclear-weapons program is already a reality. There’s no hesitation on the rhetoric — the program, top administration officials say, is an unfortunate reality that demands our immediate attention. As Dick Cheney recently put it, “Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting […]
For the last several decades, the Republican Party’s presidential nominating process has been relatively predictable. At least since the advent of the modern primary system, with the possible exception of 1980, the GOP nominee has either been an incumbent president, incumbent vice president, or the guy embraced early on as the establishment’s choice. Bruising primary […]
I’m a little surprised Barack Obama’s policy pronouncement on Iran the other day isn’t a bigger deal. Especially among the netroots, I’ve noticed there’s been some fully-justified complaints that Obama has been afraid of taking bold policy positions, and has struggled to articulate new ideas that are both progressive and a break with political orthodoxy. […]
From time to time, advocates of one policy position or another will try to connect an unrelated matter to national security. For example, you might hear someone say immigration is a national-security issue because we don’t want terrorists sneaking across the border illegally. Or energy policy is a national-security issue because we don’t want to […]
In the most recent debate for Democratic presidential candidates, Tim Russert confronted Hillary Clinton on the issue of records from her husband’s White House. Russert argued, “[A]s you well know, President Clinton has asked the National Archives not to do anything until 2012” about records pertaining to communications between the Clintons. The senator noted that […]
Former President George H.W. Bush suggested this morning on Fox News that his family may still produce even more political candidates. Bush … said that he would like to see another generation of Bushes in public office. “I’ve got a grandson that would make a wonderfully able public servant if he ran, George P.,” said […]
Following up on yesterday’s item about the latest Newsweek poll, new data from the Washington Post/ABC News poll is also worth considering. Apparently, Americans aren’t terribly pleased with the status quo. One year out from the 2008 election, Americans are deeply pessimistic and eager for a change in direction from the agenda and priorities of […]
For several years, the Bush White House has said “stability” in the Middle East is a misguided foreign policy goal. The president’s vision demanded that transformative democracies spread throughout the region, and that maintaining stability does little more than tolerate dictatorships. It made for pleasant rhetoric, but the administration never really meant a word of […]