No one knows how to stack a national poll with loaded questions like Fox News does. It’s almost impressive — most news outlets go out of their way to ask neutral questions, but the Republicans’ network artfully does the opposite. FNC is practically offering professors of quantitative analysis case studies in what not to do […]
Yesterday, the big story was Matthew Dowd, the first member of Bush’s inner circle to break ranks and denounce the president. Today, it’s Vic Gold. He’s not exactly a West Wing insider, but he’s close. Vic Gold heard from Lynne Cheney a few weeks before George W. Bush was sworn in as president in January […]
CNN’s Michael Ware has been providing excellent reports on the war in Iraq for four years, but now that he’s taken on far-right talking points directly, the far-right community has decided to take him on directly. It started last week. John McCain made a series of ridiculous claims about conditions in Baghdad, including the notion […]
In some ways, measuring presidential candidates by their fundraising totals is just about the ultimate in political inside pool. The typical American doesn’t know or care how much money a campaign raises — but the numbers are carefully scrutinized by reporters, candidates, staffers, and major donors. It’s not necessarily fair, and fundraising conditions can change, […]
The showdown over war funding between Congress and the White House is already ugly. Dems have passed a spending bill with a withdrawal timeline, while Bush prefers an open-ended commitment to fighting in Iraq’s civil war indefinitely. Because lawmakers refused to go along with the president’s demand for condition-free money, a veto is now all […]
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: * I was going to report here on Q1 fundraising totals for the presidential candidates, but I think there’s enough interest to warrant a full post. It’ll be up soon. * Former Wisconsin […]
The latest Newsweek poll included a variety of interesting questions about Americans and religious matters, including the not-surprising fact that 91% of the public say they believe in God and almost as many (87 percent) say they identify with a specific religion. Although one in ten (10%) of Americans identify themselves as having “no religion,” […]
The Bush administration’s purge-scandal strategy took an odd turn over the weekend, when White House officials pushed Senate Democrats to let Attorney General Alberto Gonzales move up his sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The White House scrambled Sunday to move up [tag]Attorney General[/tag] [tag]Alberto Gonzales[/tag]’ planned testimony to Congress about his involvement in […]
NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell appeared on the Chris Matthews Show yesterday and mentioned a series of fascinating revelations, not the least of which was that Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, recently sat down for an exclusive chat with Senate Republicans to discuss strategy on Iraq legislation. “Petraeus went to the Republican […]
Sen. [tag]John McCain[/tag] (R-Ariz.) obviously thinks Americans are idiots. There’s no other explanation for his recent foolishness on Iraq, topped off yesterday by a fascinating [tag]shopping[/tag] trip to a [tag]Baghdad[/tag] market. As you probably recall, a week ago McCain appeared on Bill Bennett’s radio program, toeing the right-wing line on “progress” in Iraq. “There are […]