Over the weekend, the big political brouhaha was over a three-sentence “scoop” in Bob Novak’s latest column. Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party’s presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it. The nature […]
Last week, after a classless supporter asked John McCain, “How do we beat the bitch?” the senator responded, “That’s an excellent question.” Within 48 hours of the exchange, McCain’s campaign was raising money (effectively) based on the “bitch” controversy. But that was last week. This week, McCain wants to be Mr. Civility again. Republican presidential […]
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: * Rudy Giuliani is trying to rally support in Iowa, without looking like he’s rallying support in Iowa. His campaign is relying on “a surge of radio advertisements, telephone calls and mailings,” while […]
The WaPo’s Peter Baker has an interesting front-page piece today on the president enjoying a few disaster-free weeks. After years of one calamity after another, Bush and his team believe they’ve reestablished their footing. The public, meanwhile, isn’t impressed. In many ways, the shifting political fortunes may owe as much to the absence of bad […]
For years, the White House has chosen to put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the backburner. Actually, that’s probably overly generous — the Bush gang has preferred to ignore the problem altogether. The good news is, the administration is now poised to hold a major Middle East peace conference. The bad news is, no one seems […]
In August, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) traveled to Baghdad and received a briefing from Gen. David Petraeus, in which he acknowledged his belief that in order to “win” in Iraq, U.S. forces would have to stay in the country for “nine or 10 years.” This was hardly reassuring. Indeed, for every pundit who insists that […]
It’s surprisingly easy to turn on the TV and find countless examples of why most coverage of the presidential campaign is utterly useless, but Greg Sargent found a particularly egregious example yesterday on Meet the Press. Yesterday’s show consisted of six media personalities discussing the presidential race. It was hardly gripping television — we, the […]
Just when it seemed Thomas Friedman realized the destructive nature of Dick Cheney’s foreign-policy vision, the New York Times columnist suggested yesterday that the VP’s approach is not only healthy, but should play a role beyond 2008 if a Democrat succeeds Bush. Specifically, Friedman seems excited by the prospect of an “Obama-Cheney ticket.” (Friedman goes […]