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: * Barack Obama probably didn’t have any fun at last night’s debate, but he had a pretty good day with superdelegates. He picked up four yesterday, including three U.S. House members. The WSJ […]
The AP notes one of its own polls today, to explain, “Republicans are no longer underdogs in the race for the White House.” John McCain, the AP noted, has pulled about even with Dems thanks to support from disgruntled Republicans (who had been reluctant to close ranks), independents, and some disaffected Dems. Partly thanks to […]
When I first started noticing blog headlines about far-right Fox News personality Sean Hannity feeding George Stephanopoulos questions for last night’s debate, I thought it was a metaphorical point. As in, “Some of the questions were so bad, they may as well have come from Sean Hannity.” I came to realize, though, that the concern […]
Following up on the last item about the calamity that was last night’s Democratic debate, the problem was not just that moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos devoted more than half the event to process, trivia, and gotcha questions, it’s that the shift to substantive issues wasn’t much better. The first 50 or so minutes […]
Over the last year or so, we’ve seen debates that were pretty bad. We’ve seen a few that were embarrassingly bad. But at least in this cycle, I’m not sure if we’ve seen anything quite as train-wreck, cover-your-eyes bad as the spectacle on ABC last night. What may prove to be the last Democratic debate […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Huge day at the Supreme Court: “U.S. executions are all but sure to resume soon after a nationwide halt, cleared Wednesday by a splintered Supreme Court that approved the most widely used method of lethal injection. Virginia immediately lifted its moratorium; Oklahoma and Mississippi said they would seek execution […]
In case you missed it, earlier this week, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews suggested he’s actively considering running for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat in 2010. Seriously. When Stephen Colbert brought up the subject, Matthews stopped smiling, stopped joking around, and responded, “Did you ever want to be something your whole life?” He added, “Well, it’s something you grow […]
The Huffington Post caused quite a stir two weeks ago with the now-infamous report about Barack Obama’s remarks about “bitter” working-class families in small towns. Today, the Huffington Post has a follow-up report about Hillary Clinton. During the past week, Sen. Hillary Clinton has presented herself as a working class populist, the politician in touch […]
As regular readers know, I’ve been fascinated with the implications of John McCain’s age on the presidential campaign. For all the talk about Americans’ comfort levels when it comes to an African-American president or woman president, there’s ample evidence that voters are even more concerned with a septuagenarian president. Howard Dean recently noted that the […]
After criticizing Joe Lieberman’s antics on Monday and Tuesday this week, I was prepared to give him a pass today, but his drive to infuriate his former party continues unabated. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the Democratic Party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee, is leaving open the possibility of giving a keynote address on behalf of Sen. […]