Just a few days before voters head to the polls in Ohio and Texas, two contests Hillary Clinton has to win big, it’s surprisingly unhelpful to see top Clinton aides start to point fingers at one another. Harold Ickes definitely doesn’t buy the argument that Mark Penn isn’t responsible for everything that has happened to […]
In 2000, John McCain excoriated George W. Bush for kicking off his campaign in South Carolina at Bob Jones University, visiting the campus and delivering a speech to the student body. McCain assailed the appearance, arguing that Bush’s uncritical speech at BJU — a school with a record of anti-Catholic bigotry — was tantamount to […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The Land of the Free: “More than one in 100 adult Americans is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released today. With […]
For quite a while, Bush and his supporters were absolutely convinced that he is a modern-day Truman, suffering with low approval ratings, but whose stature grew in subsequent decades. The good news is, Bushies no longer believe he’s a modern-day Truman. The bad news is, they’re now convinced he’s a modern-day Lincoln. Consider Fox News’ […]
Digby raised a point yesterday about a subject I haven’t considered in nearly enough detail. The Republicans have been better than Democrats for years at branding and marketing…. But it looks like the Dems have finally caught up. They are taking a different tack, as they should have been doing all along, and appealing to […]
A reporter at this morning’s White House press conference asked the president an interesting question I haven’t heard Bush respond to before: “You can get the Congress to protect telecom companies from lawsuits, but then there’s no recourse for Americans who feel that they’ve been caught up in this. I know it’s not intended to […]
Unable to make an honest case for retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated with an illegal warrantless-search program, the Bush administration and its allies have crawled to Door #2: Dems are resisting because of the trial lawyers. In the fight over retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who participated in the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program […]
At the president’s White House press conference this morning, a reporter raised a reasonable question: “You’ve said, Mr. President, that you want to leave Iraq in a sustainable situation at the end of your administration. Can you describe for us specifically what do you mean by ‘sustainable’? Do you have specific goals and objectives that […]
There’s been considerable discussion this week about whether Barack Obama has, to the media’s satisfaction, rejected/denounced the beliefs of some controversial figures who’ve endorsed his campaign. Most of the talk is a rather classic example of guilt by association, but it seems to be big news anyway. The Farrakhan squabble seems especially unhelpful, given that […]
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: * After a couple of weeks of speculation about his intentions, Georgia congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis officially switched his support from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. In a statement issued […]