First up from the God machine this week is an encouraging religious development on climate change, from an unexpected source. Signaling a significant departure from the Southern Baptist Convention’s official stance on global warming, 44 Southern Baptist leaders have decided to back a declaration calling for more action on climate change, saying its previous position […]
John McCain is embarking on an overseas tour, ostensibly as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Of course, as the Republican presidential nominee, the politics of the trip is almost unavoidable. McCain is a familiar figure overseas, but the heads of state in Iraq, Jordan, Israel, France and Britain will take fresh measure […]
It was largely unexpected, but questions about Barack Obama’s church pastor had, oddly enough, suddenly become the one political controversy that stood to do the most damage to his campaign. The Rezko story seems pretty thin, NAFTA-gate turned out to be much less than met the eye, the “madrassa” story was complete nonsense, and the […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The latest on Florida’s delegates: “Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) is floating a new compromise idea for seating delegates from Florida: That the result of the January rogue primary be accepted as is, but that the overall delegate allotment be cut in half, as the Republican National Committee originally did […]
Behind-the-scenes talks continue at a fairly aggressive pace about what Dems are going to do with Michigan and Florida. There’s a growing sense that Michigan may end up hosting a do-over primary in June, while influential Floridians continue to float various compromise proposals. There’s apparently a sense among Clinton supporters that the Clinton campaign should […]
A month ago today, Gen. David Petraeus sounded relatively optimistic about political progress in Iraq: “The passage of the three laws today showed that the Iraqi leaders are now taking advantage of the opportunity that coalition and Iraqi troopers fought so hard to provide.” That was then; this is now. Iraqi leaders have failed to […]
Well, I don’t imagine the White House is going to be pleased. A deeply divided House approved its latest version of terrorist surveillance legislation today, rebuffing President Bush’s demand for a bill that would grant telecommunications firms retroactive immunity for cooperation in past warrantless wiretapping and deepening the impasse on a fundamental national security issue. […]
John McCain is worried about violence in Iraq, but not just for the obvious reason. Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Friday he fears that al Qaeda or another extremist group might attempt spectacular attacks in Iraq to try to tilt the U.S. election against him. McCain, at a town hall meeting in this […]
Samantha Power said something intemperate, so she was forced to resign. Geraldine Ferraro said something racially offensive, so she was forced to resign. A member of Obama’s LGBT leadership council, Maxim Thorne, said something rude about Clinton sex scandals, so she was forced to resign. Clinton officials in Iowa sent around the Obama email smear, […]
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: * Won’t someone please stop the madness: “Two more Democratic presidential debates were announced on Thursday, the first to take place in Philadelphia on April 16, and the second in North Carolina on […]