Up until fairly recently, Republicans had absolutely no idea what to do, or even say, about rising oil prices. They knew Americans were worried about it, and they recognized the impact on the economy, but they came up short on the solutions part of the equation. There was some half-hearted talk about ANWR, but everyone […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Bloodshed in Baghdad: “A car bomb tore through a market area in a mainly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and wounding dozens, officials said, the deadliest such attack in more than three months.” * Flooding worsens in the Midwest: “Hundreds of volunteers on […]
Looking ahead to November, there are just two angles to the campaign that worry me. One is the extent to which email-circulated smears will undermine support for Barack Obama. The other is the number of Dems — either because of ideology or spite — who’ll withhold support from the Democratic ticket. I suspect both groups […]
Barack Obama sat down with the Wall Street Journal’s Bob Davis and Amy Chozick’s yesterday to talk about economic policy in considerable detail. There are plenty of interesting exchanges, but I was especially fond of Obama’s remarks about empiricism. The Journal asked about what role Bob Rubin might play in an Obama administration, and Obama […]
I’ve long wondered what, exactly, opponents of same-sex marriage believe will happen if gay couples have the same right to marry as straight couples. Several years ago, I recall Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum telling TV preacher Pat Robertson, “[T]he consequence is very clear. Marriage loses its significance. People will stop getting married. Homosexuals will […]
Way back in 2004, Bush told a Florida audience, “[John] Kerry said, and I quote, ‘The war on terror is far less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering law enforcement operation.’ (Audience boos.) I disagree…. After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our […]
School vouchers haven’t had any luck at all lately. Voters in Utah, expected to be rather conservative, overwhelmingly rejected a statewide ballot referendum on vouchers last November. The president touted a voucher plan in his State of the Union address, which was DOA in Congress. A study of the Milwaukee system found that students who […]
We’ve seen more than a few breathtaking stories in recent years about the kind of treatment veterans receive when they return from Iraq, but this is just astounding. Mentally distressed veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are being recruited for government tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects, an investigation by […]
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 announced yesterday that he intends to visit Iraq and Afghanistan before the election in November. John McCain predicted that Obama would embrace the Bush/McCain policy on Iraq after seeing the […]
Why, it’s almost as if John McCain, after expressing no interest in energy policy at any point in his three decades in Washington, took a poll and realized it’s time to tackle an issue voters find the issue important. That means unveiling a new TV ad that insists McCain “stood up to” Bush on global […]