Today’s edition of quick hits. * Awful news out of Iraq from Reuters: “At least 175 people were killed when three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers attacked a town, home to an ancient minority sect, in northern Iraq on Tuesday in one of the worst single incidents in the four-year-old war. Iraqi army Captain Mohammad […]
This seems to have become a weekly occurrence. Obama offers some commentary on U.S. foreign policy, the right pounces, and the facts show that Obama’s right and the GOP is wrong. The latest in the series came this afternoon. There’s what Obama said: “We’ve got to get the job done [in Afghanistan] and that requires […]
After the Michael O’Hanlon/Ken Pollack op-ed appeared in the NYT a couple of weeks ago, they did multiple media interviews, each of which characterized the Brookings’ scholars as war “critics” or war “skeptics.” The news outlets were, of course, wrong — O’Hanlon and Pollack both supported the war and endorsed the so-called surge. As Oliver […]
When it comes to abortion rights, Rudy Giuliani can avoid the subject and talk about “strict constructionist” judges. When it comes to gay rights, he can try to find some wiggle room between his previous (read: genuine) beliefs and his new (read: pandering) beliefs. But when it comes to immigration, Giuliani might find the flip-flop […]
The NYT ran a couple of interesting companion pieces today, one on Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and the other on Robert Gates, Bush’s Defense Secretary. The pieces offered some insights into how they both perceive their responsibilities right now, particularly with regards to Iraq policy. The pieces are worth reading, […]
It looks like the most talked-about media piece of the day is David Frum’s take on Karl Rove’s White House tenure. Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, argues, relatively persuasively, that Rove crafted a White House political strategy that was predicated on helping Republicans, instead of helping the country. That’s true, of course, but anyone who’s […]
When the president and Karl Rove delivered brief statements at the White House yesterday, reporters were not allowed to ask questions. One spoke up anyway. As Karl Rove embraced President Bush today following an emotional farewell announcement on the South Lawn, the solemnity of the moment was shattered by Bill Plante of CBS, who bellowed […]
When a presidential campaign gets to the general election, party nominees will often pick running mates whose job it is to aggressively go after the other candidate. There are a few reasons for this, most notably that it helps a ticket go negative while creating some distance between the presidential candidate and the attacks. Obviously, […]
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: * Hillary Clinton’s campaign unveiled its first TV ad of the season, which will hit the Iowa airwaves today. The spot, which is called “Invisible,” is quite good. “If you’re a family that […]
Richard Cohen is often wrong about a great number of things, but this is just silly. In this already dismal presidential campaign, where nary an original idea has been broached, Rudy Giuliani said something remarkable the other day. When asked if he is a “traditional, practicing, Roman Catholic,” the former mayor of New York essentially […]