Iowa Democrats hosted a boisterous Jefferson-Jackson dinner last night, with 9,000 enthusiastic attendees packing the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines. If you missed C-SPAN’s coverage, most of the candidates posted their appearances on YouTube: Dodd, Edwards, Obama, Richardson, and Clinton (though Clinton’s clip is only a brief excerpt). Biden hasn’t posted his speech, while […]
Here’s an unexpected turn of events: the Bush administration wants England to be more like France when it comes to a conflict in the Middle East. The Bush administration is losing patience with Gordon Brown over Iran, with senior American diplomats frustrated by his reluctance to declare bluntly that the Islamic state must never be […]
If anything, Hillary Clinton’s leads in recent polls have almost been too big. As the race for the Democratic nomination tightens, as these races almost always do, it gives the appearance of Clinton faltering and losing momentum. It’s probably not a fair characterization. After all, when a frontrunner goes from a big double-digit lead to […]
It’s rather unusual for high-profile columnists at the same newspaper to engage in a public quarrel, but the NYT’s Paul Krugman and David Brooks have been going at it, slyly. In a recent column about race and politics, Krugman noted the Republican Party’s use of the Southern Strategy to pit whites and blacks against one […]
In noting the relative political insignificance of presidential candidate endorsements, the NYT’s Michael Powell reported today: So the most unlikely pairing of the presidential campaign is unveiled, with the Rev. Pat Robertson flashing a television-practiced smile at Rudolph W. Giuliani, the thrice-married, pro-abortion-rights former mayor of New York. This same preacher once said that the […]
This seems to come up every couple of weeks, as if the political establishment expects action. That doesn’t make it any more likely. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said Saturday his political advisers have warned him against giving a speech explaining his Mormon faith. During a house party overlooking Squam Lake, Romney was asked by […]
Part of the problem with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is that it’s just too good. The candidate and her staff, which is top notch, just don’t make mistakes very often. They’re disciplined, experienced, and professional to a fault. It’s exactly why when they do screw up, it seems all the more striking. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s […]
After State Department diplomats heard that many of them may be ordered to Iraq, whether they want to go or not, the American Foreign Service Association polled officers to see who trusts Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to “fight for them.” Only 12% said they did. It appears our nation’s chief diplomat needs to do […]
There’s been some suggestion of late that Rudy Giuliani deserves credit for not throwing his corrupt friends, most notably Bernie Kerik, under the bus. Giuliani, like a certain failed president we know, values loyalty above all else, and is willing to be loyal in return. The NYT’s Gail Collins, in her best column since returning […]
Of all of Bush’s misstatements from the 2000 presidential election, one of the most obviously-false attacks was on military readiness. Indeed, then-Gov. Bush blamed Clinton and Gore directly for “hollowing out” the military. “If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, ‘Not ready for duty, sir.’” […]