About a week ago, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a co-chairman of John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, raised a few eyebrows when he said he hadn’t endorsed McCain this year, and didn’t have any plans to do so. “When I endorse someone, or when I work for someone, or commit to someone, I want to be […]
The six-week gap between the Mississippi and Pennsylvania primaries is a long slog for the political world, but it seems to have taken a painful toll on our poor media personalities. As Dayo Olopade noted today, the gap has created “a ‘news’ vacuum that has essentially forced the national media into a sort of 1950s, […]
Much to everyone’s surprise, House Democrats simply wouldn’t budge a month ago when the Bush administration demanded that Congress pass a permanent “Protect America Act” — with retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. The law expired, the president threw a fit, and lawmakers broke for a two-week spring recess. Throughout the debate, especially after the PAA […]
John McCain, when discussing the war in Iraq, hasn’t had any luck at all lately. He’s repeatedly been confused about al Qaeda’s and Iran’s role in Iraq; he’s publicly contradicted Gen. David Petraeus; and now he’s not quite sure who came out on top after Maliki’s failed offensive in Basra. Asked if the Basra campaign […]
Looking over the coverage of Hillary Clinton’s pitch this week, I can’t help but think she’s off message. Today in Philadelphia, for example, Clinton is emphasizing the need to keep the presidential campaign going. In excerpt of a speech she’s set to give to the AFL-CIO in the City of Brotherly Love, Senator Clinton says […]
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: * A new Rasmussen poll out of Pennsylvania has caused a bit of a stir, showing Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama by just five points, 47% to 42%. This is down from a […]
Over the weekend, hosting a town-hall meeting in Johnstown, Pa., Barack Obama was asked about how his administration would address HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases among young girls. Obama’s answer didn’t strike me as especially controversial, but the right seems pretty worked up about it. “When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the most important prevention […]
A few months ago, there was quite a stir over whether Reagan employed a divisive Southern strategy in 1980, starting his campaign with a speech supporting states’ rights in Philadelphia, Miss. — the same town where three civil rights workers had been murdered. With that in mind, I was a little surprised to see that […]
For quite a while, the debate over blogs in the Defense Department was over whether U.S. troops should be allowed to have them at all. On the one hand, some officials were concerned about security breaches, with troops inadvertently sharing compromising information online. On the other, some saw blogs as a morale-boosting outlet for the […]
Last week, Jonathan Martin noted that it seemed as if Barack Obama and John McCain were “itching” to take each other on directly: “They just can’t wait to go at it.” And there is not just an appetite for blood, but some strategic political imperatives at work. In the science world, they call it “symbiotic.” […]