The Wall Street Journal had an item today on the Obama campaign rolling out a “new nationwide faith effort” that will, among other things, make it clear that the Democratic candidate is a Christian. The initiative represents a direct challenge to Republicans, who successfully wooed conservative evangelical votes that in turn fueled President Bush’s re-election […]
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: * Superdelegate announcements have been relatively spare this morning, with only one endorsement I can find: Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) endorsed Obama. * On a related note, the Obama campaign issued this press […]
In 2004, hoping to rally the Republican Party’s far-right base, the president did his level best to make gay marriage a key issue in the presidential campaign. Bush hadn’t shown much interest in the issue before, and seemed to quickly forget about the culture-war rallying cry once he’d won a second term, but the president […]
On Saturday, John McCain had to get rid of the man he tasked with managing the Republican National Convention when we learned he’d run a lobbying firm that represented Burma’s military junta. On Sunday, McCain had to get rid of a regional campaign manager because he’d been the lobbyist responsible for managing the junta’s account. […]
Soon after the president told the Israeli Knesset that Democrats are Chamberlain-like appeasers because Obama is prepared to talk to Iran (just as Bush’s own Defense Secretary and Secretary of State have recommended), John McCain jumped on the far-right bandwagon. Aboard his campaign bus, McCain told reporters Obama’s willingness to negotiate with rival heads of […]
When U.S. troops serving develop PTSD, it’s a painful tragedy. When Veterans Affairs officials discourage PTSD diagnoses because it might cost too much money, it’s a genuine scandal. VoteVets.org and CREW have done some great work on this, and news outlets are picking up on the story. A psychologist who helps lead the post-traumatic stress […]
In the unlikely event you haven’t seen it elsewhere, right-wing shock-jock Kevin James appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball” yesterday afternoon, and Chris Matthews humiliated him. It was a bit like watch a car crash — you really don’t want to see the carnage, and yet, you find it hard to turn away. For all of his […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * 50,000: “The death toll from China’s massive earthquake could reach more than 50,000, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday, quoting rescue headquarters. Already some 20,000 are confirmed dead as a result of Monday’s 7.9 magnitude quake, and at least 12,300 people remained buried and another 102,100 were […]
I get the sense the Obama campaign is having a pretty good day. With Hillary Clinton’s landslide victory in the West Virginia primary in the rear-view mirror, and John Edwards’ high-profile endorsement yesterday, Obama and his team have spent the afternoon fighting with Bush and McCain, which is exactly the dynamic Obama wants more of. […]
In the morning, the president, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset, suggested that Democrats want to appease terrorists, the way some wanted to appease Hitler. In the afternoon, the White House thought it best to play dumb. Q:There’s some question about his comment here about “some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists […]