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: * More intra-party reconciliation: “As we first reported here, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wooed top Clinton donors at a private presentation in Manhattan yesterday, and the early indications are that such efforts […]
A couple of days ago, the NYT’s Thomas Friedman sounded a slightly hyperbolic note about Barack Obama’s popularity on the global stage: “It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Democrats’ nomination of Obama as their candidate for president has done more to improve America’s image abroad … than the entire Bush public […]
Following up on an item from earlier this week, it’s bad enough when the Bush administration awards tax dollars to abstinence-only programs that don’t work. It’s worse when our money goes to far-right abstinence groups based on their political connections. And it’s even worse still when these same abstinence groups get more money than they […]
In the latest NBC/WSJ poll, released yesterday, there was a noticeable trend when it came to age groups — the younger the voter, the more likely he/she was to support Barack Obama. The only age group in which John McCain excelled was with those over 65 (who prefer McCain to Obama, 48% to 41%). How […]
For a few weeks in May, there was considerable focus on John McCain’s campaign staff, stacked with corporate lobbyists, many of whom had some very unsavory characters (read: tyrannical dictators) as clients. In June, McCain hopes to turn the tables, going after some advisors Barack Obama picked to work on his VP search committee. It’s […]
To hear his campaign tell it, John McCain is in his element when he hosts town-hall forums. Give him a podium and a teleprompter, and he’s lost. Give him a microphone and a floor, and he’s fine. With that in mind, McCain, hoping to erase some of the lingering memories of last week’s speech debacle […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Good move: “The House on Thursday approved an extra three months of jobless benefits for all unemployed Americans, knowing the plan’s chances are slight in the Senate and almost nonexistent at the White House. After failing to get a veto-proof two-thirds margin by three votes on Wednesday, Democrats got […]
In the coming issue of Joint Force Quarterly, an official military journal widely distributed among officers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff writes a welcome but unusual open letter to everyone who wears an Armed Forces uniform: stay out of the political arena during the election season. “The U.S. military must remain apolitical […]
With Democrats and environmentalists opposed to oil drilling off the coast of Florida, Dick Cheney has decided to push the rhetorical envelope a bit. With gas topping $4 a gallon, some Republicans are pointing to Cuba once again to bolster their case that the U.S. should be drilling along Florida’s coastline. The claim: China has […]
Media efforts to minimize the differences notwithstanding, Barack Obama and John McCain couldn’t be much more different, especially on the issues of taxes. The irony is, McCain, after his last presidential election, thought Bush’s trickle-down, class-warfare-style tax plan was ridiculous. “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the […]