Let no one say the Obama campaign is unwilling to take advantage of opportunities that avail themselves. Last night, Barack Obama hammered John McCain for his bogus claim that U.S. forces in Iraq have been “drawn down to pre-surge levels.” Today, Obama keeps the pressure on: “We all misspeak sometimes. I’ve done it myself. So […]
Republicans have been known, from time to time, to use the politics of fear to get ahead. That, of course, includes scaring the bejeezus out of their own rank-and-file supporters, in order to get them to open their checkbooks. But former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) seems to have laid it on pretty thick […]
It’s become quite entertaining to highlight John McCain’s similarities with Still-President Bush, on everything from the major policy issues to the identical words they use to describe various challenges. But I can’t help but notice that McCain isn’t just eerily similar to the president, he’s also following the strategy Bush used eight years ago. John […]
After a brief hiatus, The God machine was busy this week with plenty of interesting items of note. First up is a disconcerting story out of Iraq, about residents of Fallujah angered by conversions efforts of a U.S. Marine. The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that a Marine in Fallujah passed out coins with a Gospel […]
The traditional dynamic for recent presidential races considers what the Democratic candidate will do when the Republican candidate goes on the offensive. I get the distinct impression that the Obama campaign wants to flip that equation and keep McCain on the defensive as much as possible. On Thursday, the presumptive GOP nominee walked himself into […]
Today’s the day. The Clash in the Capital. The Dispute in DC. The Scuffle in the Swamp. The Fracas at … well, you get the idea. There’s a very good chance that today’s meeting of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee will be anti-climactic, but as political theater goes, this is reasonably interesting stuff. When […]
Guest Post by Morbo The neo-creationists who espouse “intelligent design” have hit a rough patch. In 2005, they lost a federal lawsuit over the teaching of ID in a Pennsylvania public school. “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” the documentary that was supposed to put ID on the national stage, was a critical flop and commercial failure. […]
Guest Post by Morbo I am very weary of newspaper columnists who carp about why Candidate X won’t tell the American people the hard truth about Issue Y when they know full well any candidate who did that would see his or her political career end. These columns spring up like weeds during every presidential […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * This morning, the McCain campaign insisted there was nothing wrong with using pictures of Gen. David Petraeus, without his permission, in their fundraising solicitations. This afternoon, McCain himself admitted the campaign was wrong and said it “will not happen again.” * As for McCain ignorance about how many U.S. […]
Given that the Bush White House prefers to pretend that the co-equal branch at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue doesn’t really exist (or, at a minimum, its oversight authorities don’t really exist), members of Congress are rarely aware of what folks in the West Wing are up to. It’s why there’s near constant talk […]